Whirlwind Days

My Kid’s lives are so crazy, mine seems tame by comparison. Jonathan and Kristy have moved into their new home, but are busy trying to get all the fencing up that needs to be done before they leave for the reunion. Deborah is very pregnant and working hard to keep her blood sugar under control. And checking out hospitals along the route to the reunion…. Just in case.

Andy and Kera moved into their new house. Then a few days later, they helped her dad unload all his things into his new house less than a half hour from their home. Kera has been shuffling kids back and forth to Vicksburg for scout camp (Aaron) and Youth Conference (Katie and Nathan.) We just heard that her sister Melinda will be induced with her first baby and Kera promised to come out and be with her in Utah. So Kera will leave on Sunday (July 12^th) to drive out there for we're not sure how long. We hope she will make it to part of the reunion.

In the meantime Miranda and Dan are packing and stressing about their houses closing on Friday the 16^th so they can get to the reunion. However, Miranda promised Kera she’d babysit Kera’s children when Kera went to Utah to help her sister Melinda with the baby. So Miranda and kids are abandoning Dan to finish packing while she goes to Russellville to babysit.

Tom and I had been planning on going to Miranda’s to help pack and maybe fix the roof that one guy said he could fix… but then he couldn’t. But they found someone else to fix it in less than a week before the house is to close. On the good side, the new house owners will let them store stuff in the garage this week before the closing. And on the plus side, Tom and I can pack everything in sight since Miranda and the kids will not need it before the move.

So what has been going on in our less exciting lives?

Monday night we went to our Empty Nester’s group for a pot luck at the park at Lakeview. Tuesday we went to Silver Dollar City.

It was storming that day. Rain was predicted all day. But it was the only day we could go and I didn’t think it would rain THAT hard. I wanted to see the Harlem Globetrotters that were playing there. We did and we wandered through some shops and saw the new show at the saloon which I thought was cuter than some in the past. I was also able to get some large crochet hooks for a project coming up.

We weeded the garden and Wednesday we finally canned 8 pints of pickled beets. I love pickled beets, but found I don’t care all that much for just plain steamed beets.

A friend at church makes these fantastic lace necklaces. I will learn how to make them on Thursday of next week. But I wanted to be able to teach anyone who wanted to learn at the reunion. So I spent time looking at some of the 52 shades of ladder ribbon I can use and narrowing my choice down to half a dozen. They arrived and I’m very excited about sharing the fun with the family at the reunion.

As I’ll be out of town most of the rest of the month, I wanted to get my newsletters done before I left. I did get a draft out. It may be that some of the owners want to put in a special promo or a letter specifically from them, I can get that done. But I didn’t want to have to write and organize 9-11 articles and get them properly formatted as soon as I got home. After all, shortly after I get back from the reunion and visiting Adam I get to go to Deborah’s to help with a new baby.

Thursday afternoon I jumped ship and played with pottery again. I want to do some dishes with Queen Ann’s Lace imprinted in it. And the flowers only bloom for a period of time. This time I cleaned up my crock and then worked on a 9x13 casserole dish. I took the wet piece home to clean up on my own since I won’t be able to go back to Marian’s before we leave.

Friday evening we had a long awaited Bishopric dinner. It had been planned a month or so ago, but then one of the wives was in a car accident and had a broken rib. So we rescheduled it. I felt rushed will a thousand things I can’t even remember now.—running errands, mailing things, blah, blah—but I did get some broccoli salad and cucumber salad made. Everyone else brought dishes and we had a lovely meal and great conversation.

We talked about where to have it next, and the wife of the executive secretary said, “We’ll be out of town then.”  We said, “When will you be out of town?” She said, “Whenever the dinner’s supposed to be at our house.”  She’s such a sweet, timid looking woman, it was funny to hear her joke.

Saturday we had house sitters come to get information on lawn mowing, plant watering and chicken and cat feeding. We had home and visiting teachers come. We had people come to tell us how we could give the cats their shots and not have to pay $40/per cat times 4 at the vet’s. Tom bushhogged the field and mowed the lawn.

Today we had good meetings in church. A lot of it was about being in tune with the spirit. Tom has Bishop’s Youth Discussion going on now with lots of tasty refreshments. The youth seem to enjoy coming over. After that’s over we’ll see about getting ourselves over to Miranda’s.

Trading Sideways

I spend a lot of time looking at the financial markets. I do some investing. I do some options. With options, you hope the market trades sideways so they expire without being called… and you get to keep your money. The market has been going mostly sideways this year.

I feel like my weeks have been going sideways too. I’m not making the advancements I’d like to make but neither are things going poorly. I had hoped to land my “whale” and have an excellent client. Alas, the client has gone on vacation for the next week or so and so nothing will happen. She didn’t have a chance to review my proposal, so I don’t know if it’s likely to be accepted or not. And so we wait. I’ve been reaching out to other clients… but so far, nothing exciting.

In the meantime, I wrote my 9 articles for the HVAC newsletter. It’s due shortly after I get back from the reunion, so I wanted it out of the way, if possible, before I go. My marketer for whom I write the newsletter finally landed his “whale.”  So in the next six months there may be a trickle-down effect. And I’ve been talking to an interesting person about start-up companies.

Tom decided to go to his 50^th high school reunion in October so we will go and visit Mom in the beginning of October. Then I will fly out on the 13^th to go to my copywriting bootcamp. I got the tickets for that flight this week.

I have a new counselor in my Relief Society presidency. She is very nice. We decided to drive to the temple together—the 4 of us: President, 2 counselors, and secretary—on Wednesday. It was a long day as I live the farthest away and had the most dependable car so we took it. But we had lovely visits on the way up and the way back and a nice session in the temple. One of the counselors drove a good percentage of the way home, which was a big help to me.

Thursday I finally went back to Marian’s to do some pottery. We always have such fun and varied conversations. She’s a great teacher. I had made a large crock out of dark clay. Last time I was there I glazed it. When it fired, it got a crack on the bottom. So it could be used for a planter… but not a crock. Alas, the glaze turned out differently on the darker clay, and it’s pretty ugly. When you want to see how clay and glaze will work together, you typically make a small “test tile” that’s an inch or so big. Marian said, “You made a really BIG test tile.”  Remind me next time to start out smaller.

So while we were there, I went back to my favorite white clay and imprinted it with Queen Ann’s lace and created another crock. What I like about Marian is that her pottery is all useful. She was telling me about a garlic and chocolate grater made of concentric rings on a plate. She said people knew about it on the east coast and west… but not here. Apparently the two best enzymes in the garlic for your health blend together when garlic is grated, but not diced. Who knew?

Tom got stung by a wasp on Thursday and he hauled some vines and tree debris on Friday. Between the two of them he has a rash on one arm that's spreading to various places on his body.  It doesn't look like poison ivy... but it's a rash and it's red and spreading.  Poor man.

I don’t remember if I told you about a group of us going and singing to Walt, a member of our ward who was in failing health. That was apparently one of his last good days. He passed away on Tuesday. It was a yours, mine, ours family and 8 of the 9 children and their families came to the funeral held on Saturday. July 4^th was one of his favorite holidays and they celebrated his life by holding the funeral on that day. Tom needed to be there to officiate and it was lovely to see all the family come together and enjoy one another. It made me wonder what mine or Tom’s or Mom’s funeral will be like.

I mentioned a lady visiting our ward who makes lace necklaces. She volunteered to teach me. So I checked with the RS president and then invited other sisters from the ward to come and learn with me. I announced it at church today and showed them some of the lovely necklaces. Now we need to find the 11.5 crochet hooks (about the size of my index finger) to make the necklaces.