Stake Conference

This was the last week we’d have Rebecca and family for a while and there was lots going on.

Monday we drove to Springfield to get Tom’s running shoes. Since we were so close to ½ of ½ Rebecca was going to drop me off and go over to the shoe store with Tom.  But the store was going through remodeling and only half the store was open.  Dang.

I didn’t think I could spend 1-2 hours there, so I made them wait while I shopped.  Rebecca and kids came in to shop as well. Tom stayed in the car to read.  Then at the shoe store, the kids wanted to stay in the car, so I sat there and read while Rebecca and Tom went in. He found great running shoes.

We went to lunch at our favorite Mexican place only to discover it had closed down.  So we went to Panera.  Might have gone to Andy’s frozen Custard for lunch… but it was raining and they only had outside seating. Panera was no doubt, more nutritious.

Tuesday I lined us Rebecca to talk to our whole life insurance agent to see if that was something she might want to do.  I also talked to title companies about insurance for the house we are buying.  And finally connected with Samsonite… who again sent out an incorrect bag… although they have been very nice about the whole thing.

It’s been a bit fragmented to work for some reason.  But I got a little done. Fortunately, I don’t have a lot of work lined up. And next week, I should do better.

Thursday Rebecca and crew went to see the new How to Tame your Dragon movie in the afternoon, and Tom and I went to see Malificent I the evening.  I thought it was enjoyable.

Stake Conference was Saturday and Sunday. President Jones wanted to feed all the people who came to priesthood leadership meeting from 4-6.  We figured about 175 people to feed between 6 and 7 pm.  He wanted a sit-down meal for about 30—bishops and wives and special guests.

Feeding the masses is definitely not my specialty.  But we divided things up—one counselor made cookies, another counselor, Michele, made salad and lined up hostesses to help serve and clean up, and I agreed to do potato soup. My secretary was tasked with decorations and paper goods.

 I got the recipe and multiplied to about 10 gallons.  I bought all the ingredients on Thursday.  Friday five of us gathered at church for a potato peeling party.  Wow!  Great women.  They worked fast and got 40 pounds of potatoes peeled and cut up.

I was at the Cuisinart chopping onions and celery, then sautéing them on the stove and cooking the potatoes.  I did it in one gallon batches, because otherwise I wasn’t sure how to keep the recipe straight.  Got 5 batches done.  But it was SO hot when I put it into the gallon storage bags, I was afraid to do more.  And the ladies were done with their part.

So I came home and cooked two pans of potato soup on the stove, put them into bowls to cool, and then bagged them.  It was a bit more relaxing at home.

I took a break to get a raindrop/massage.  Rebecca got one as well.  Then Tom left to go get Joshua back from Scout camp so Rebecca could leave earlier on Saturday.  She spent the day packing and withdrawing her “footprint” from the house.

Saturday they got up and left about 9:30.  Tom and I planned on leaving for West Plains by 10 but it was closer to 10:30 before we were packed and off.  I had to pack the food and we planned on spending the night.  We had a meeting at noon for the pioneer trek planning.  They fed us lunch.  At 2, when that was over, Tom had a bishop’s training meeting he was in charge of.

I headed for the kitchen and began putting the soup together.   Michele had lined up 10 crock pots.  I think 8 were there by 2.  So we began heating the potato mix plus the milk.  Most all of it got hot in time.  We added the cheese and waited.  We had bread, cookies, and some biscuits.  And water pitchers and cups.

There was a total possibility of about 250 people—if you added up all the callings that could come.  Then family history people were invited.  Not just the leaders… that would be 7 but all their helpers.  Number: unknown.  And the Sunday school presidency was invited.  And there were others hanging around that might want to eat.  I had no idea if we’d run out or have tons left over.

The hostesses were to help in both the sit-down area for bishops/stake Presidency/special guests/wives area and the general priesthood leadership area of food serving.  One sister really wanted to wear a hat.  It was important to show her love and encouragement, so Michele agreed to wear a hat, too. 

 The hat ladies!

Her creative son made hats for Michele, my secretary, and Michele’s 2 daughters. One was complete with fake peacock and real peacock tail. 

The hat lady brought in an extra marvelously extravagantly decorated hat.  The hat group served the sit-down group and it truly was elegant.  Tanya, the secretary, did a fabulous job of decorating and making it look nice!  Even with just 45 minutes between groups meeting in the room.

This wonderfully creative hat lady also made a beautiful apron with the Relief Society logo on the front.  After the dinner she gifted it to me.  I was humbled.  It is delightful and I will cherish it.

I prayed for the loaves and fishes and I planned the food amounts.  Maybe I didn’t do it quite right.  I think we might have had more left over than when we started.  I’d guess we fed over 100.  But we ended up with nearly 7 gallons left over!  How could that be??  We gave some away.  My counselor took some home as I did.

Actually, we stopped clean-up to go to the Saturday Evening session of stake conference.  I had been asked to give the opening prayer.  Um.  I forgot… and walked in at the beginning of the opening song.  Tom reminded me.  As I think on it, it was awesome to give the first opening prayer of the first session of the first stake conference of the newly formed West Plains, Mo stake.

Both the evening and the Sunday sessions were so spiritual in uplifting.  We heard from many different, ordinary people about extraordinary things in their lives.  One had gone inactive as a teen and spoke of his return to activity 30plus years later.  Another spoke of her difficult upbringing, devotion to paganism, and finally coming to the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We heard from both mission president and temple president and our patriarch.

President Jones talked about preparing ourselves for the Savior’s coming.  That means changing our thoughts, desires, and priorities to those the Savior would like us to have.  It means organizing our lives and spending them doing the things of MOST value.

It’s been a great day!

Two Weeks

It’s been two weeks since I last wrote.  That’s because it’s been filled with FAMILY!  WAHOO!

During the week of the 9^th, we got the house offer accepted.   So we went out and did inspections and created estimates and decided it was workable.  The heat and AC work, but the ducting needs to be redone under the house and the crawl space is very limited.  Fortunately, I think we have a skinny guy to do it.  We found the septic tank and it seems to be in good condition.  We will need to blow insulation into the attic, do some flooring, electrical, painting and other small stuff that adds up… and up.

I was all excited about running interval training.  Well—I was excited about the results.  But last week when I ran, I hurt my Achilles tendon. I thought it would get better in a few days.  It has not.  One ankle is much more swollen than the other.  I’ve oiled it and tried to not use it a lot.  I did walk one day and hike a short trail with the grandkids once, but have not been able to go back to running.  I’m a bit concerned about being in shape for the pioneer trek on July 17-19.

Wednesday June 11^th Miranda and crew came up.  It’s so nice to see her little ones.  Camden and Ethan were friendly pretty quickly. Alex took a few days to warm up.  But Kera and all her kids but Nathan arrived on Thursday, as did Rebecca and kids.  Since Kera had watched Alex when Miranda and Dan went on a cruise, Alex was happy to go to her.  And she was great at helping out!

It was pandemonium and mayhem with 13 grandchildren here (all 13 and under)—but in the best way!  They were really good playing with one another. Katie and Marian led the crew down to the fishing hole.  They caught some small fish and crawdads in the pond.  Eventually we inflated the raft and they used that on the pond as well.

Aaron and Callie found a turtle—more likely a terrapin.  They built a shelter for it in their hidden fort in the back woods and retired there to play.

Everyone rode the zip line from Katie to Ethan.  All of Kera’s kids were good about taking turns.  Once I showed Charlotte how to get off at the end, she didn’t want any help there. (Although she still needed help getting on.)

The moms planned for activities for the kids.  They went to the lake, the library, the parks, and on a hike. My friend Beth, who was moving, kindly brought over all kinds of toys that were a big hit.  I didn’t know what all they were, but they were greeted with exclamations of joy.  Lala- loopsy dolls.  20 series early chapter books. A doll high chair and cradle.  Sidewalk chalk.  All were well received.

It seems like, with this crowd, you spend a majority of the time in the kitchen!  We ate well.  Good foods, great deserts.  We cooked a ham the day after they arrived.  We had planned a surprise birthday party for Rebecca—the big four-o.  Then she said she hated surprise parties.  Well, we told her we were celebrating father’s day early and had invited some friends over.  They were her friends.  And about the time we brought out the cake (and the pies), we confessed to it being a surprise for her birthday.   Tom had bought these fantastic invitations and table topping.  They said” Vintage Vixen. Perfectly aged. Bold and leggy with a hint of sass.”

Wednesday Tom went up to spend the day and the night at Girls’ Camp.  Everyone there seemed to have a fun time in spite of the very primitive camping conditions. No air conditioned cabins here.  It was a field and tents.  Water was optional—you had to bucket it from the spigot. Bugs were generous—available throughout the grass.

Kera, kindly sewed two pairs of bloomers for my pioneer trek.  I was so grateful!  That isn’t the kind of thing you can get at Walmart.  And she did such a nice job.  She even sewed a quilt square for a quilt the Relief Society is making for one of our families that moved to Vilonia and lost their house in the tornado.

Friday Kera and Miranda spent doing laundry and packing up.  Oh, it was so sad to have them prepare to leave.  Who would play 5 Crowns at night?

The day before everyone left, Miranda bought some fireworks.  I mostly watched from upstairs to prevent spoiling the fun by yelling, “Watch out!”  “Move back!” and other generally unappreciated advice.  No one got an eye poked out, or burned.  And they all seemed to have a great time.  Some of the sparkly-spraying things were fun to watch.

Saturday our grandchild population dropped from 13 to 5.  Sunday Josh left for scout camp and it now rests at 4.  It was fun while it lasted.  And the volume and clutter is reduced…. And the amount of food necessary to cook.  But oh, it was fun!  Thanks for coming!

 Craft times.

 Reading times

 Monster biting times.

Alex crawls well. Now he's pulling himself up and walking along furniture.  He had a fun time watching Camden who was playing outside.  All was happy until Camden opened the door to come in.  Oops.

Life Goes On

Some weeks it seems like we don’t do a lot.  But I’ll share what I know.

We put in an offer for a house while we were visiting with Mom.  They countered.  We countered and gave our final and best.  We’re still waiting.  On Monday it will be a week.  But the good news is that they are considering it or it wouldn’t take this long.

I read that interval training was as good or better than just walking or running.  So I decided I could do 12 minutes of interval training.  The goal is to run all out until you can’t.  Then walk until you catch your breath and do it again. And again, for 12 minutes.  How hard could that be?

Hard!  It wasn’t the running and walking part.  It was the sore muscles afterward part.  I really felt like an old lady.  Each getting up was accompanied with grunts and groans. Every movement started out a slow hobble.  But in a warped way, the running and exercise feels good.  I hope to eventually move beyond the groan stage.

After the exercising, I’ve moved to the garden to spend an hour or so weeding and picking.  Sometimes it’s picking sugar snap peas or broccoli.  It’s also picking potato bugs and broccoli worms. They be NASTY!  And they are definitely trying to multiply and replenish the earth… at the expense of my vegetables. Any suggestions for natural pesticides?

My jobs have slowed, so I’ve been a bit more focused on marketing.  I’m moving my www.writing4income.com site to be more HVAC newsletter oriented.  It’s a process.  In changing the theme and the words, it’s currently pretty bland.  But I’m working on it.  I also applied for some jobs on Elance and have an interview on Tuesday.  Several of the women from Clayton’s workshop have stayed a bit connected and we had a follow-up phone call on Friday.  It’s nice to be in a group of women who are at or ahead of my writing career.

Tom had been running in preparation for the Gassville In The Park 5K race.  He got two of the young women in the ward to run with him.  We’d had some buffeting rain and storms on Thursday and Friday, but Saturday dawned clear.  They all ran well.  Tom placed first in his age group.  The younger teen placed first in her age group. And the other teen won fastest woman!  So it was a clean sweep.

I wandered around the booths that were getting set up.  I bought some soap and visited with my friend Marian the potter.  Then Tom brought the youth home and they helped him get the fence up along the back property line.  It turns out the fencing we bought is short.  We’ll have to get more.  They unrolled 200 feet of fencing through the brush!  They were hot and sweaty when they finished.

Today we had rain again.  Church was good.  I was asked on Friday evening to teach the Relief Society Class and did.  It was a good class and I think the lesson went well.  Tom had BYD  here with the teenagers, then went home teaching.  We had a chance to call and visit with some of the kids tonight.

At the Mama's Week Two

Monday Mom, Tom and I went to a Memorial Day celebration put on by the American Legion.  It was very nicely done.  Cynthia and Jim are usually in attendance at at least one Memorial event, but since Jim just had foot surgery, they were in recovery mode.

 Tuesday we went to the Queen Mary.  It was fun to see this old historic ship.  We took an audio tour and saw a timeline of her history, the engine room, a mock up of the ship and samples of the different classes of rooms.

I'm glad that newer ships don't have 3rd class....  Even if you're in an inside stateroom, you get to eat at the same restaurants as the suite stayers do.  We had lunch at a nice restaurant there on the ship.  Mom did a great job of "walking the planks"-- around almost all the ship, while I dashed in and saw the Princess Diana  display.

 Wednesday Mom got a new screen door put in.  We went shopping so she could stock up.  She's not driving much with her eyes losing some vision.  We talked to her about golf carts.  Maybe she'll get a GEM car. They are cute and have rigid doors.

I went out to lunch with Cynthia and had a lovely visit.  It's always so nice to chat with sisters!  We came home and packed for our trip.  We did some laundry and the dryer gave it's last gasp.  We had to finish drying clothes outside.  Since the dryer is 15 years old, it may not be worth trying to fix.

We felt bad that we didn't have time to help Mom work through that problem.

Cynthia drove us to the airport and we had an uneventful trip to Tulsa. Miranda met us there.  They had had some storms and had these magnificent cloud formations as we drove to Miranda's.

 The kids were glad to see us. It's nice that they are not shy around us anymore.  Dan and Tom had a project to do.  They wanted to enclose a section of the garage for a food storage area.  Dan had already put in an AC vent to that part of the garage.

The men worked hard all day Friday!  This is just the beginning.  They got sheet rock up and insulated and put the inside sheet rock on too.  Tom mudded the seams.  They'll need to sand and mud some more and then paint and hang the door.

They also changed the attic access from the ladder on the wall to a drop down stairway.

However, Miranda found an Andy's frozen Custard store in the area, so we took a break after dinner and went out for ice cream.  Yum!!

Saturday Dan had to work.  Tom did the second mud coat and we packed up and left.  Had a nice drive home.  A little rain.  A little lunch.  And Alde's stop for some shopping.  But, crazy me, I must have had  the "back to the barn" drive.  I skipped 1/2 if 1/2 and didn't to any clothes shopping.

When we got home, we found the lawn neatly mowed.  The garden mostly weeded, and the vegetables productive-- lettuce and spinach starting to bolt.  Broccoli and sugar snap peas ready for picking. and Sunflower seeds up nicely.  Alas, the beans and the zucchini were no shows.  They will have to be replanted.  And the potato plants were decimated by potato bugs.

Ah well. Tom says no more summer travel when the garden is producing. We'll see.

Saturday evening we went to Super Saturday and learned a little more about our responsibilities as Ma and Pa on the upcoming Pioneer Trek.

Sunday it was nice to be in my home ward with no responsibilities.  I don't think Tom felt that way.  He was busy with meetings from 7:30 until after 3.  A good bishop.

Visiting the Mama

Monday morning Tom mowed the lawn and finished up odd tasks before we left for the drive to Miranda's.  On the way we stopped to look at a house about 5 miles out of town toward Gassville.  It was a HUD repo and seemed in good condition. We'll make an offer and see what happens with it.

We enjoyed visiting with Miranda, Dan and kids for a little while.  Tuesday morning Dan and Tom went shopping for wood to build a food storage area. We had a chance to go for a walk with the kids and enjoy strong Oklahoma winds. Camden rode his bike... and crashed on his bike a few times.  He was amazingly game about the whole thing, getting up and riding it again. Ethan scooted along in a little riding "motorcycle" that you scoot with your feet.  He was as fast as Camden on the bike! Alex used Mom and Grandma power behind the stroller.

We flew out of Tulsa.  An uneventful flight to Denver.  Then thunder storms rolled in and our 2 hour layover became 5 hours.  We both got to reading and almost missed our flight when it finally left.  They had "Los Vegas" up on the boarding display.  It did go to Los Vegas, but after Orange County.

Sally was a dear and picked us up from the airport and drove us to Mom's.We had a nice chance to visit. It's been lovely being here with Mom.  We've done some shopping-- food and at Bed Bath and  Beyond.  While there, we found some sheets marked down from $79 to $9.99.  How can you pass that up? Mom got a pillow.  I pointed out a very expensive pillow and said, "Look!  It comes with a lifetime guarantee."  Mom laughed.  "How will a lifetime guarantee help me?  Five years is good enough!"

Jim had his foot surgery the day we arrived, so they have been low key.  Tom did some shopping for Cynthia and on Saturday we took dinner over to celebrate Jim's birthday.  Always lovely conversation at their house.  And the food was mighty tasty, too.  Swiss potato salad, worst, and I made rolls from the Food Nanny Baguette recipe and also Fruit Pizza Pie with strawberries.  It always looks so festive and tastes yummy.

We had leftover fruit pizza pie for desert the next night, too.

I haven't done a lot of writing this week.  I did some editing on two books. And I've been trying to read some of the classic books on advertising and writing.  Tom went running 2 times this week.  He complains that next time, mom needs a house in the valley-- so you finish running downhill instead of uphill.

Sunday we did two churches.  We went with Mom so she could be honored for her 93rd birthday at her Presbyterian church.  Then we had a quick lunch and went to an LDS service in the afternoon.  Friendly people.  Good talks.

All in all a delightful week.