Progress

In most areas things are moving forward. After several weeks of on-again, off-again health, we seem to be getting energy back and not emptying the kleenex box in record time. It's good to be feeling more energetic.

We are also making progress on the house. All the walls and cabinets are washed and awaiting painting. Tom started working with the paint sprayer and painted a number of doors, the fireplace, all the baseboard trim, the closet trim and the door trim.  He hand-painted the window trim. We still have several coats and several sides of doors to do. The former owners put some high-gloss varnish on some of the trim.  We did an insufficient job of sanding that... so will either have to sand better or replace those trim pieces. And we don't yet know how the sprayer will do on the cupboards. However, the bedrooms are about ready for wall paint.

On the writing side, I've been working with a trading company in England on writing a book on investing.  We have been going back and forth on the contract. They want me to assume all liability... for copyrights and regulatory compliance...and I'm not inclined to do that. We are also discussing the due date as they want editing and revisions included in the original timeline. Since I have no control over how much editing or how long it will take for them to review and return... we haven't come to an agreement.  This could be an intense writing period. Or it may fall through. In the mean time, I have two other calls on Monday for the possibility of other short work and ongoing ramping up for the Hospitality company that is launching the end of this month. So it could be feast or famine.

We were excited when Nathan got the job at Baxter Labs, even though it was temp to perm. He went in for orientation on Monday and went to his first day of work on Tuesday. Unfortunately, his depression kicked in and he felt overwhelmed and suicidal on Tuesday night. I was sad that he finally got a job that could lead him to all the things he desired, but he was not able to do it. His goal in coming to us was to try to get him moving forward. But he really was no better than when he came home from his mission.

Nathan and Kera determined he really needed a full evaluation and to make sure he was on the right meds. He was supposed to take care of that himself, but clearly it was beyond his abilities. So he returned home to Russellville on Thursday and they will see that he gets evaluated and the correct treatment. It will likely stink going back to being a "kid" after he had all the freedom he had here, but that's probably what's needed now.

Friday Tom and I went to the temple. It was a nice day. We drove in the van with about 10 other people and had good visits up and back.  On the way home, Bro. Powell, the usual driver (Tom was driving at the time) got really sick. So we stopped at the Rolla ER and waited about an hour to see what would happen. In the car we had a great discussion about signs of the Second Coming.  Then we decided to continue home because the doctor still had not come to evaluate him. We were about 15 miles down the road when we got a call saying they were releasing him. So we drove back and picked him up. They'd alleviated the pain and he was feeling much better.

Saturday we worked on the house and then Tom went to Super Saturday in West Plains.They had a talent show and he was impressed with the talents of the kids.

Today was a good day at church. It was much more relaxed that last week. I studied the lessons ahead of time and that helps. A lot of the Sunday School and Relief Society was about the restoration of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon.

This evening Tom and I worked on some family history. Then he went out home teaching.

And so life moves on.