Trip to Mom's

This has been an eventful week. A week ago Saturday as I was looking in the mirror, I thought, I can't go off for two weeks with hair this long. So I made an appointment to get it cut first thing Monday morning.  Then we left to drive to Miranda's. Deborah's family was sick, so we bypassed her... but managed to spend a half hour at 1/2 of 1/2 and buy two tops.

Miranda and Dan had a new project to do when Dan was removing trim in the entry way and broke a tile... one that could not be matched. So Tom did a little tile chipping Monday afternoon. Then Dan came home with some noisy... but very effective machine. In under 2 hours he removed all the tiles and smoothed the floor so it was free from thinset glue. I helped Miranda fix dinner. Then we went out to return the tile scraper gizmo, look for lighting, and eat frozen custard at Andy's.

Why look for lighting, you ask? They were debating on paint colors and needed to see the existing living room paint in better light. We had rearranged the living room so that more natural light came in and the paint looked good to me. After Tom added the new lighting on Tuesday, Miranda agreed.

Tuesday Tom took me to the airport and then went back to Miranda's to paint the hall and finish the living room painting. Not sure what else was on the agenda, but he left and came back home on Wednesday. Good thing.  Our cat/chicken sitter was leaving town on Thursday. Thursday Tom went to visit a former church member at the Calico Rock Prison. Then on Friday he went to the temple with a pretty large group from our ward.

I had an uneventful flight to Santa Ana. Sue and Steve picked me up and took me to Mom's. We had a nice afternoon and evening chatting. Sally came down for dinner and brought a great pot roast with veggies. Very tasty. Cynthia kindly hosted me for the night. It was that or Mom's sofa. Wednesday Sue and Steve packed and left.

Mom had been feeling pretty puny. The heart A-fib leaves her with little energy. Even the effort to get dressed leaves her needing to nap. But through the week I think her appetite has picked up and she's been able to do a few more things.

Thursday we went to get her hair cut. Then we stopped at an Asian market. I don't think I've ever seen that much variety of seafood in one place. And they had a whole aisle of tea... but no herb tea without any black or green tea in it. We ate lunch out at Jolanda's and then came home and relaxed.

Friday we went to her podiatrist appointment and did a little more shopping. Friday evening I made chicken Alfredo and it turned out pretty good. Saturday we relaxed. Cynthia and Jim came over and brought a tasty dinner. We worked to prep Mom so she could conserve her strength to be able to go to church on Sunday. Shower, clothes laid out. It reminded me of a Primary song: "Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sundayyyy..."

I have been able to get some work done most every day. I pretty much finished up a website aimed at the universities so that they'd have confidence that this tech start-up group would be able to take their precious inventions and turn them into products that would help people and make everyone money. (They actually have several techs for kids that won't make money, but will really help disabled kids.)
I've had several calls with some of the business owners about how to get some publicity started for their products and some inquiries about writing short papers to attract investors.

I learned this week the Stake Relief Society is supposed to provide lunch for missionaries during their quarterly interview meetings. The first one will occur just a few days after I get home. I assigned it out, but will probably need to do more follow up.

Today- Sunday- Mom and I got her ready for church. She has been traveling in a wheel chair and I've been borrowing Cynthia and Jim's car. Cynthia very kindly showed me how to get the wheelchair into the car. It looked slick and simple when she did it. I've had about a 50% batting average. Sometimes it slips in... sometimes I have to manhandle it all over the place. Once it ended up on the seat. Another time totally upside down! Fortunately,I do a better job with the Mama in it. Perhaps by the time I leave I can add "wheelchair mastery" to my skill set.

We had a nice time at church. Many friends came to greet Mom. The minister said that we should not look to governments to solve our problems but should look to Christ and change our hearts to solve our problems. I thought that was a good answer for today's ills.