Busy busy

Oh dear. Once again it’s been two weeks since I last wrote. I hope I’m not creating a habit here.

On Monday the 16^th I officially signed up for Medicare. I got my card yesterday and on the first of May I will be eligible. I haven’t needed a doctor for a while… and I hope that continues. When I do, I’ll have to learn to navigate this system.

That week was just an amazingly crazy week. We came back from Jonathan’s and I had TONS of stuff I needed to catch up on and do. One of the major ones was that I had a Clayton Makepeace webinar on Monday. I’m going to his pricy Financial Intensive in May and I’d turned in homework for him to review. I was pleased that he liked my ideas. I now have to work on it more… but it’s been nearly two weeks and I have not touched it again.

I had some work for Newsmax I was doing with some pretty short deadlines—like 48 hours. It was the first time I’d done this kind of email, but after one revision, she thought it was great.

I had agreed to sing at our ward’s Visiting Teaching convention on Thursday. They should have been simple songs, but the harmony was a bit odd. So we practiced Sunday, Tuesday and then Thursday before the program. And I practiced some at home as well. It was lovely haunting music and I think the program went well. I had invited two people to go with me and they both said they would. I was trying to figure out how I could take them and still practice. But then they both dropped out. I was sad. But it made it easier to go to the practice.

I have been working on a book on customer retention and renewals for continuity programs—especially financial newsletters. I’d like to have it finished, printed and ready to take when I go to the financial intensive in May. So I’ve been finishing it. Tom has been great to proof read it for me. This week I finally got it mostly formatted and if I can get the cover finished, I think it may be able to go to the printer (create space print on demand) on Monday. I will be glad to have it done… but even published is not done. When I get the first copy, I’ll find all the mistakes I didn’t track done in the many revisions I’ve already done.

I bought a book layout that I thought would make things very simple. But since I’ve spent about 16 hours putting the book into the format and working on the cover layout, I don’t think it’s very simple at all. It does look lovely, though.

For our Women’s retreat, we are making fabric covered journals for each sister (200). We want to give her a chance to record the miracles, blessings and tender mercies that come into her life each day. I’ve been cutting out fabric—using scraps that I have. A sister gave me some of her scraps, too. Then on Tuesday of this week, three of us got together and pasted. Ugh. I think we did about 60 in two hours. They each took about 18 home to finish. I finished my 18. And my poor secretary has nearly 100 to do.

Saturday, Tom was trying out his new tractor and took a load of dirt and rocks over to Ernie’s house to put in a big dip in his driveway. He decided to come around from the side to dump it. Unfortunately, he forgot there is a swale or a seasonal bog there and got the tractor well stuck in the mud. We tried to pull it out with the truck, but no luck. And they were predicting more rain. So I called a neighbor and he came over with his little tractor. But he had a longer chain, so he was mostly on the drive and with some tire spinning, he was able to pull Tom’s big tractor out. It was a little exciting!

 Lilac's blooming and fountain flowing.

We have been having rain and our tulips and phlox have been magnificent. We planted the garden and have little heads of broccoli now. Our asparagus is growing and we are feasting on that. But our little sugar snap peas are only an inch or so tall. If the weather gets hot, we may not have any of them. Still, it’s fun to get the garden started again.

Last Sunday we had a ward conference in Houston. It’s about 2 hours north east of us. I ended up being gone over 12 hours that day. The day started with training at 8:30 am. Then I taught the lesson in Relief Society. It was on a great topic—the blessing of the Word of God. After church we were to have lunch and go visiting. But the visitee’s fell through so we just chatted. Then at 3pm we had Stake Council. It’s always interesting.

This week was a little less hectic. I continued work on the journals and the book project. I got a quick assignment from Newsmax and I need to work on my HVAC newsletter. I have the article ideas approved. I also got the article outline approved for my 1/month executive coach article and got that written.

I’ve been trying to work on my family history—going back on the Donop line. I found where two sisters—Pauline and Antoniette (sisters to Franz Anton) married two brothers—Otto and Joachim Roder. When I was given options of “is this the same person?” on Family Search, they seemed to connect into to a Roeder family with lots of children, two of whom married Pauline and Antoniette Donop. But the marriage dates are different… and Pauline is married to a different brother. So I think they ARE connected… I just need to straighten out the pieces.

Thursday and Friday Tom and I went to St. Louis to the temple. It was a nice trip. We took some of the Donop family names and were able to do 6 endowments and about the same number of sealings.

Saturday Tom had a primary activity where the bishopric went to breakfast with the primary children and then played church jeopardy. Tom’s team won. The primary presidency was pleased with what the children knew. The questions were all taken from Primary sharing times for the past 18 months. And the children knew most all the answers.

Cute story: Pam’s autistic great-grandson has just been going to church for perhaps the past 6 months. He was riding the bus home from school. One kid said, “I’m the Avenger!”  Another kid said, “I’m Iron Man!”  Her grandson pipes up, “I’m the Prophet Moses!”

After the activity, Tom joined other men helping to put in 150’ of fence line for one of our members who was just diagnosed with terminal cancer. He had just built a new house and needed this part fenced off as part of an easement agreement. I’m glad they were able to put his mind at rest on this point at least.

We had great Sacrament talks today. Really, good lessons all around. Now I need to finish letters to missionaries, finalize plans for our RS Women’s Retreat, and visit with family!

Two Weeks!

Sorry that I took a break last week. So here is a two week update.

Deborah and family came to visit over her children's Spring Break. I went home with Deborah on Sunday March 29^th and spent two nights at her house. It was lovely to spend more time with her family. I did go to ½ of ½ and do some therapeutic shopping.

Early Tuesday morning Deborah drove me to the airport. I didn’t realize that a flight that got me to LA about noon and left at 6am meant I had to be up by 4AM!  Nevertheless, the flights were uneventful and Cynthia was waiting at the airport for me. We stopped by her office to collect some of her things—as she was moving to a home office. And then we went out for a nice lunch. It was fun to chat and catch up.

It was so nice to see Mom (GG). She is doing well. She says her vision is not as good as it was and sometimes she is tired, but she did a good job keeping up with us all. I settled in on Tuesday.

Wednesday we went to dinner at Cynthia and Jim’s house. Thursday Steve and Kathy came to visit. He had a meeting in California the following week and flew out to spend some time with Mom. He introduced me to the Atkins diet and I tried it for a few days. I loved eating all the fat and protein I wanted. Doing without sugar and carbs was a bit harder. I did learn how to eat a hamburger with a “lettuce bun.”  It actually tasted pretty good… as did a LTB sandwich wrapped in lettuce.

One day we took Mom shopping and got a new toaster oven for her. I was on the lookout for wall paper that I could use as the exterior for programs for our spring stake women’s retreat. It seemed like we passed the time in a maze of eating, talking, shopping and such.  One day Cynthia came over and we decorated Easter eggs. 

 Here are the eggs wrapped and ready to be dyed.

We dyed them in natural dyes-- onion, eggplant, orange peels, and beets.  The onion ones turned out nicely.  The beets-- not so much. I think we left them in too long. The other were quite pale, too.

One evening—noon time???-- Sally drove down with Walter Donop, Jr. and we had a meal at Cynthia’s house. He seemed pleased to see us and to be included in the visit. Sally brought a bunch of Donop genealogy down to look at.

I was able to watch both sessions of Saturday General Conference. Then on Sunday, I got most of the first session before taking Mom to Easter Sunday at her church. I watched the afternoon session and then we went to Sherrill Macur’s (my cousin) house for Easter dinner. She had decorated her house very nicely and has such a beautiful house with a great view. It was fun to visit with her and her husband Roger, Aunt Ruth (her mom) Cynthia and Jim and Steve and Kathy.

We talked politics and religion which was quite interesting as the group ranged from liberal to conservative, religious to not very. It did get a little lively… but I don’t know that anyone was mortally offended.

Monday Sally came down again and we looked at the Donop genealogy. We tried to see if we put in some names in the family tree on LDS.org if we would find someone else who was also working on the line… but we could not. We spent some time reviewing some of the things Mom had on her list from when she first moved. Who had asked for what?  Had they gotten it?  Did she have things she was ready to give away that people wanted?  It was pretty complicated. I think we may have to create a new list and try again. She did divide up some bracelets and earrings she no longer had a use for. I got a wonderful clunky copper one. Then when I packed, it was so tight, I had no place for it. So I wore it home. I found it matched what I was wearing that day… and the next. So I guess it really is my color.

Monday afternoon we went to the Department of Motor Vehicles and turned in mom’s license for an ID card. It was a bit of a process, but everyone was very nice. And in a few weeks she should have her ID card.

Tuesday Mom and I went on a marathon shopping trip. I found some wall paper that would do for my program covers. Mom wanted greeting cards so we found a dollar store. Jim had foot surgery that day so we wanted some get well cards for him.

Then we hit Trader Joes, had lunch at a nice little bakery, and looked for some clothes for mom at Marshalls and Nordstrom’s off the Rack. We found a few things for her.  We left about 10:30 am and got home about 4 pm. We were both tired. Had an easy meal and I packed my bags.

Wednesday Cynthia came for breakfast and we chatted. Jim’s surgery went well and he seemed to be pain free at least at that time. Then mom had a friend from church take me to the airport. He was a Kenyan, so we had a lovely chat as we drove to the airport. His manner of speech took me back to our mission.

I did some work on the plane, then succumbed to a book. I got to Fayetteville about 10pm and there was my sweet daughter waiting to pick me up!  I love my family!  The next morning, Deborah and all the non-school children (Simon, Christopher, and Samantha) and I drove up to Mt. Vernon, MO to Jonathan’s new house.

Jonathan had driven down with a U-Haul full of food storage and furniture. We spent the next few days assembling furniture and cleaning. He had the floors sanded and stained. They had not applied the finish coat yet because we were going to be there before it had a chance to dry. However the dust had gone all over the place. So we cleaned and dusted and wiped out cupboards. We weeded their small garden patch and Jonathan planted some seeds. We walked the perimeter of the 40 acres and got a feel for the property and where fencing was needed. It was nice to spend time with Jonathan.

We left Jonathan's about noon on Saturday. The freeway was lined with redbud trees.

We came home in time for me to fix chicken salad (for Sunday) and then go to a baptism. Tom was doing the baptizing and I was leading music. We had this sweet woman in our home for lessons, so we were excited for her.

Once we came home, I needed to finish some writing homework, plan Relief Society Training, and practice some songs. Sunday I needed to train the RS, and practice these songs… all at the same time! AKK. I was also supposed to go to another meeting—but got excused from that.

I had my counselors and secretary start the training, while I went and practiced with 6 other sisters for the Relief Society visiting teaching event on Thursday. Then I came back and participated in the training. This is a new RS presidency and they were very attentive to the training. That took longer than I thought it would, but it was good.

Afterwards, about 3pm, my counselor and secretary came over to my house. Tom had Bishop’s Youth Discussion just about over as we arrived. I served the meal I thought we might do for the Stake Women’s Retreat and they pronounced it good. We discussed how to fix it and what we should do for desert. We covered programs and decorations and I think have finalized most things. We inventoried our paper supplies and made lists of things to shop for and price. We finally got done with that about 5 pm. Phew!  What a day.

Tom took me on a walk around the property to see the dogwood in bloom. My phlox are so lovely and showy in front and my flowering quince bush is glorious. Tulips are blooming and so is the lilac bush. Spring is a wonderful time.

Now I’ve written to missionaries and to grandchildren. I have other notes to write. But I think I may be done for the night.