Christmas and After

It has been a lovely, relaxed Christmas season.

On Monday the 18th, I send off the email series to Eagle Publishing. I eagerly awaited their edits with the hope that I might be able to finish the project before Christmas. Alas, it was not to be. He was leaving town for vacation.  .

I turned my attention to the Chad promo and worked on that this week.  In a way I think I'm going around in circles with it. I just hope the circles are getting smaller and smaller and finally we'll have a clear direction.  I had sent some requests for more information off, so when it was time to leave for our trip to Jonathan's I felt no guilt at all about not taking any work with me.

Wednesday the 20, we decided to try to get the leaves off Barb's yard. She has wonderful trees... but come fall... it's a mess. We had hoped our friend with the leaf vacuum come come and help, but his machine was broken. The weather had been very dry and dusty for months. But we'd had two good rains and the ground was damp.

Tom came over with the mower and mowed and mulched. The sister missionaries raked the mulched leaves onto a tarp and dragged them to the burn pile. There had been a burn ban on, but with the rain, we thought it was likely lifted. So we started to burn the leaves.  It was going nicely when the neighbor called over the fence to say, "There's still a burn ban on. I heard on the short-wave radio that someone called the fire department about a fire on our road and they're responding."

Crud! We poured water on the fire. We heard sirens. They flew by our house as the last wisps of smoke were going up... and they never came back by.  The next day, we saw the ban HAD been lifted before we started to burn.  Sigh.  So now all her leaves are in a huge circle around the burn pile.

We made more cranberry bread and shared it. We had a couple over and the missionaries taught them. Thursday night we went to the movies and saw Jumanji. I liked it better than I thought I would. It was a fun movie.

Friday we drove to Harrison and connected with Deborah to hand off gifts to her family. Then we continued on to Branson and Silver Dollar City and met Miranda, Dan and family there. It was a mite chilly! We watched the Christmas Carol again, went on a few rides, took the train ride, looked at the lights and got home before 10pm. It was a nice day.

Except that while we were gone, the cows broke through the little picket gate next to the chicken coop and were wandering in our front yard, much to Barb's alarm.  We had her close the front gate across the driveway.  So when we came home, we were met with cows in the front yard.

They were standing on the cement under the porch roof. Then they proceeded to stomp and make wet, deep holes in my front garden, before we urged them back through the gate to their field.

On Saturday Tom built a stronger side gate. But when we let the cows back into that pasture, they immediately walked into the chicken run to eat a squash we'd thrown in. The edge of the fence next to the chicken coop wasn't attached well-- we used it as a primitive gate. However, I didn't want the cows using it as their gate!  So we tossed them back onto the east pasture only.

This week our trusty Toyota also turned the big 20... we got the picture at 20002 miles.

In the evening, we packed up presents and clothes.  Sunday we went to church and had a lovely Christmas program. We had been practicing a song with many minors and accidentals. It was tough and had dissonant harmonies. I didn't like it much, except for the places it resolved into lovely, haunting melodies.  But when we practiced it just before the service, it seemed easy and beautiful. I think we had angels singing with us.

Right after church we left to drive to Jonathan's and Kristy's.  Where we had rain, they'd had snow, and so as we got closer and closer, we got a white background that was lovely.  It was a delight to have a white Christmas even if it wasn't a complete blanket on the ground.

Sunday night we put presents out and Monday was a day of joy for the kids... and parents.

 It was a relaxed opening time where each enjoyed the joy of seeing others open gifts.  With 9 people, even a few gifts each takes time.  And the grand kids got lots of fun stuff. I like the Fox tradition of a simple lunch and the main meal at dinner time. We had a tasty ham and Kristy's fabulous macaroni salad.  I got to delve into a book I got for Christmas.  That is my favorite tradition- reading a book Christmas afternoon. Apparently no one thought to use a camera during the opening festivities.

Tuesday, Tom and Jonathan went out and hung the hammock and the hammock chair in the play house.  They also put in a roof vent and a solar light. They worked on putting up the last bit of paneling  and some trim. There is more to do, but now there is at least SOMETHING to do in the play house.  I can imagine the kids reading out there. Also onTuesday Nathan and Aaron came up in the morning and Andy and Kera and the rest of the family came up before dinner time. It was so nice to see them all.  Nathan left that evening, anxious to get to Knoxville and start working at a job.

Wednesday many of the adults and older children went over to help a neighbor move. These were the people who let Jonathan's family stay in their house after the fire.  So they were pleased to help. They thought it would just be the big things, but ended up staying to help pack and load boxes as well.  Then they came home to a friend who came to get some firewood.  err... still on the hoof, so to speak.
They went out with chain saws and a trailer and the trees ended up as firewood.  Tom, with some help from me, worked on the children's play house some more. Did I mention that it was cold!! in the lower 20's.

Wednesday, those not helping with the move, played some games and read. It was a relaxing time in and amongst the laser guns and the foam dart guns and the little drone zooming around.  But there were also puzzles and Lego construction and piano playing.

Thursday Tom and I got up and packed, visited, and then headed home.  Miranda and Dan were coming that day and we would have loved to have seen them, but Tom had a doctor's appointment we needed to get back for.  He needed to have another melanoma cut out. The surgery went well and he is recovering fine.  He's even doing a good job of taking it easy (maybe). This incision was about 3.5 inches long and is held together with 16 stitches.

Friday we got to visit again with President Melanokas. We learned more about our mission and about where we will be serving. We will be in Banja Luka, Bosnia. This is a Serb (Orthodox) section of Bosnia that is otherwise primarily Bosnian (Muslim) with some Croats (Catholic).  The 1992-5 war has left scars on the land and the people.  I need to read more to understand better.

Bosnia only recognized the LDS church and allowed a presence for the past 5 years, so it is all very new there.  Saturday we got to visit with the LDS missionary couple that we will replace. We learned more very useful things about what to bring and how to prepare. We might have room for chocolate chips!

Mini Vacation

I am always surprised by the number of things that start out on my list on Monday... and are still there on Saturday!  Are they just not that important?  Am I just so slow. Or do I just put an impossible amount of things to do on my list? Perhaps it's all of the above.

My major push of the week, work-wise, was my 10 email series.  It actually went well and I am on the last few pieces.  Of course I'll have edits come back and revisions to do. But I think the lion's share is done, and that feels good.

Tuesday was a carefully orchestrated day.  I got up early and worked on the writing project for 2 and a half hours. Then I went and got my hair cut and went Christmas shopping. At 1 my friend Margaret came over to get help with her website.  She left a little after 3 and I needed to start fixing dinner. The missionaries were coming at 5:30... or maybe 6.... depending on if we were to have another couple over for dinner and they needed to have a lesson before dinner.  Since my ususally 7pm lesson with John was also scheduled.  And Tom had to leave at 6pm for some meeting.

Well...the early couple canceled... and then John canceled...So, I thought, why not move dinner to 5pm so Tom could eat with the missionaries before he had to go to his meeting.  The missionaries could adjust... what problem could there be to move dinner up an hour?  It all worked out pretty well, since I'd planned ahead and knew exactly what I needed to do.

The meeting Tom was to go to was about family history.  So when John canceled, I went as well. We got lots of questions to answer to help with writing our personal history or learning about our relatives' lives.  While we were gone, we were "heart attacked" by the sister missionaries:

Tom spent the week working off the list of small repairs from our rental homes inspection. We have a duplex in Midway. When we walked into one bedroom, it smelled odd. Cassidy, the property manager said it smelled a bit like cat pee. But they have no cats. They newly moved in. However, we'd had a bat problem there.  Was the attic so full of bat guano that it stank?  Tom hired a young man from church to help him open the tightly sealed trap door to the attic and went to take a look.  Nope.  Bats were all gone (we'd hired someone to solve that problem.) and there was very little sign of bat poop.

However, a few days later, Cassidy finally got in to inspect the downstairs unit.  IT reeked of kittie litter and pee!  It would have saved some work if we'd been able to get into the lower unit the day we inspected the top one. But she'd changed the locks and our keys didn't work.  So the lower unit is on notice to clean up and get rid of the cat pee smell.  Jeepers. How can people live like that?

Miranda and Dan planned to go to Silver Dollar City on Friday... and maybe spend the night. Tom and I thought, why not go up on Thursday, do some shopping and join with them on Friday?  Then we looked at the calendar and decided if we wanted to get to the temple at all in December, Thursday was the best day.  So we left early Thursday morning and drove to the temple. We had a wonderful sunrise skyscape.

We did two endowment sessions and about 20 initatories.  Then we drove part way back to Branson and spent the night. In the morning we continued on to Branson.

On our way, we got a call from Miranda.  Rachael was running a temperature and had a snotty nose.  They would not be able to come. Hmmm.  We had invited some friends to meet us at Silver Dollar City so we could share some free tickets we had.  With Miranda and family, we were just along for the ride. We'd do whatever they wanted.  Now we had to be the adults and decide what we wanted to do.

We got to Branson in time to do most all our shopping. We met our friends when the park opened, about 1pm, and went to see two shows: A Christmas Carol, and It's a Wonderful Life. We wandered through a few shops and looked at the lights.

 I put on angel wings.

We didn't stay for the parade but also didn't travel home. We went to a hotel in Branson and spent the night.

We thought we might write our Christmas cards... but ended up watching Christmas movies on TV instead. On Saturday morning we did a little more shopping. It was very relaxing. We didn't have to rush anywhere.  We stopped for lunch... at Colton's,  a sit-down restaurant on our way home. No fast food.  We ordered the blooming onion, split a salad.... I was still so full I didn't need dinner! Ah... Tom might have ordered a slice of pecan pie for desert that we shared as well.

Saturday afternoon I napped, then caught up, kind of, on all the emails and such that had accumulated while I was gone. Tom played Santa and wrapped gifts.

This trip was a delightful, festive way to feel the Christmas spirit. We're having a low key Christmas season.  I have not decorated.  I pulled out a Christmas tablecloth and centerpiece.  And we have a Christmas drape over the sofa.  That's about it.  No tree, no lights, no nativity, no nutcrackers on the mantel. No one coming to our house to entertain.  And, you know what?  It's Christmas, just the same.  We are looking forward to visiting Jonathan and Kristy for Christmas.

A quiet week

It almost seems a shame to waste space writing about nothing... and yet it was a good week.

I got a review back on the emails I was writing for Eagle, and it was pretty positive.  I kept working on the package and now I'm over 1/2 done with the first draft. 

I also got feedback on the new outline for the Chad promo.  She liked the direction and had some other good ideas.  Chad's response was encouraging as well... but the data I need will likely be very slow in appearing.  So either I wait... or I pick something and say... will this do?

Monday night we had Empty Nesters.  I wanted to make tortellini, but wasn't sure how to keep it warm. I heated a crockpot with water in it. Then when the tortellini was done I emptied out the water and put the food in. It stayed nice and warm to church and through the serving.

For my bitcoin trading platforms, they encourage you to set up a two step authentication system. One easy way is with google authenticator app for your smartphone. It produces a new number every minute, so it's harder to duplicate than an email address.  When you create it, they also give you a 16 digit number to remember.  That way, if you lose your phone, you can reset the authenticator on a new phone.

Except I didn't know this the first time I set up the system. And I didn't realize the little blue dot that disappears is the minute countdown so you can tell when the number is about to change.  So I went back into CoinBase to change the authenticator, so I could write down the new number.  Had I been smart, I would have turned off the 2 stage... then turned it back on again.  But no.

I went through all the steps to set up the new number and write it down. The final step was to input the new code generated by the new authenticator number. As I was putting it in... the number changed.  When I hit what I thought was the back space... the entire program page for the change disappeared on my CoinBase.  So I had the old system on Coinbase and the new one on the phone. GAAKKK!

Good thing I don't day trade there.  It took about a week, but they finally sent me the way to fix it.  Then it took a few days (because they are really busy) to get my ID accepted. And I hope by Monday I'll be back on the site.  So if anyone wants to do the Google Authenticator.... just be sure to write down the 16 digit number correctly.... the first time.  Just saying.

Tom finally gave up on me. There was a sister in the ward that needed some extra money. So he hired her to come and clean the house.  She's not fast, but she's thorough. It's nice to have a clean house.  I'm not sure we can afford to have her on a weekly basis... but maybe every other week?

Thursday I went out to lunch with my neighbor. Had a nice chat. Thursday afternoon, I was so tired, I took a nap in front of the fire downstairs.  Tom fixed Macaroni and cheese for dinner for us.

Friday Tom worked off some of the things that needed fixing at the rent houses.  In the afternoon we went out to chop down the undergrowth along the back fence line. In some places the fence is okay. Other places, it's pretty crummy and needs replacing.  That evening, we still had leftovers from the Tortellini, the Mac and cheese and my leftover lunch, as well as some Spinach Quiche. So we invited our friend Barb over for a choose-your-own-leftover dinner and a nice visit.

Saturday Tom went off to cut wood for a priesthood work project. 14 people showed up along with 4 log splitters, a chain saw,several mauls... and some donuts. I guess they got a lot done in 2 hours.In the afternoon, he was supposed to go to one of the rent houses that had a previous bat problem in the attic. We'd been told it was all taken care of and that once there were no more bats, there would be no smell.  But when we were out there last time... there was still a smell.

So Tom planned to enlarge the crawl space and see what the problem was.  But the guy who was going to help, couldn't.  So he napped and cleaned out the fireplace instead.  I made three dozen rolls for the Christmas dinner.  There was some leftover dough... so I was forced to make cinnamon rolls.  Mmmm.... good.

The ward Christmas dinner was Saturday night and it was well attended with at least 190. I think they used every table in the building. There was ample food to go around and gorgeous table decorations.  I think a good time was had by all.

Sunday was our last Self Reliance class. It's been a great experience and many class members have seen their lives improve. After Tom's 3-5 class, he's been babysitting some of the kids in my 4-6 class. And tonight he stayed later to home teach one of the families in my class.... the one with the kids.  The inquisitive 5 year old pulled the fire alarm... creating loud sirens and flashing lights... but not all the lights worked.  And surprisingly, it didn't trigger a 911 call. Tom called to say it was a false alarm... and they came out based on that call. Apparently the alarm rang through to Salt Lake City.  I'm not quite sure how that is totally helpful. Anyway... Tom was somewhat delayed getting home and was forced to drown his sorrows in more cinnamon rolls.

December!

I forgot to mention that on November 20th, the Stake President sent our missionary paperwork to Salt Lake City. For senior missionaries the process takes about 5-6 weeks. So we will not expect to hear anything until about the first of the year.  Apparently, they send the couple's info around to all the sections that need senior couples- military, humanitarian, education, public affairs, office couples... to see if we have skill sets they need.  Then it goes to the apostle who looks at the list of requests and makes a decision.  Since we're happy to go wherever the Lord wants us to... I'm fine with that.  I'm just anxious to know where we'll be going.

I worked on writing this week.... to make up for my lack of work over Thanksgiving. My two main projects are a 10 email series for Eagle Publications, a financial newsletter; and a long sales promo package for Chad Walker, a new guy trying to move into the financial newsletter space.  I got some work done on both of them.

Chad's promo I'd done a lot on and sent it off to my a friend to copy-chief it. She reviewed it. We had a phone call... and basically I need to change it all.  But I'm okay with that. I think the revision will be much better.

I was also asked to do a little revision on the financial book I'd finished months ago. It's still in the production process. Deborah is doing more copy editing. And they keep adding more things for her to look for as she edits.

We had a monster wind blow through about two weeks ago.  It completely blew the metal awning type roof off of the tractor shed. It landed intact in the next field. Well... mostly intact. A few dings worse for wear. Tom and Katie and Aaron carried it back to the correct field and Tom started on rebuilding the support structure.  The last supports were a leeetle bit too close.  As in... the tractor clobbered one support already.

So Tom moved them out a few feet and nailed 4x4 support beams across the top. On Saturday, the cow people came over-- the father and two teen boys.  Together we hoisted the awning back up over the top of the support beams and slid it into place. This time we'll use metal brackets and other fastners to secure it to the beams and wall.

They had a half dozen round hay bails delivered as well, and I thought they could go into the barn. So Tom cleaned it out a bit-- organizing the wood and other odds and ends we collected in the barn-- and they rolled the bales into the barn.  It looks much nicer outside now.

Thursday we invited a new family in our ward over for dinner.  Their last name is Tobler... as in chocolate. How could we not invite them.  Their family line comes from Switzerland, too.  They have two little girls 4 and 14 months.  It was kind of a lively dinner and fun to get to know them.

Friday we did our sort-of-annual housing inspection. We went to all our rentals, plus Adam's, Deborah's, and Rebecca's to check them out. We ask if they have any problems- leaks, electrical outlets not working... etc. We see if they've added more or unauthorized pets or people to their houses and how clean things are. Does the yard need raking?  Most all of them were pretty good, except one of Rebecca's tenants was filthy. Fortunately, Tom fixes the problems (there weren't many) and the property management fixes the filth and other lease discrepancies.

We got back home in time for our new washing machine delivery. Tom had moved the old one out Thursday night.  So the delivery people got to shoe-horn the new one in. It's taller and longer, but fortunately no wider... so it fit into the slot.

Later in the afternoon, we went to see the Justice League movie.  It was entertaining.

Saturday, in addition to the awning work, we cleaned out the chicken coop, trimmed bushes in the front garden, and got the front area ready for winter. The neatly trimmed bushes look refreshingly precise and clipped.

Sunday we had a lovely fast and testimony meeting. In Relief Society they introduced the new lesson format we will follow after the first of the year. I think it will be a great change. After the meeting block, we met with the Self-Reliance Initiative leader from Tulsa area as well as the Stake leader.  We had some Q and A.  Then back at 4 pm for our next to last Self Reliance class.  In the evening will be the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  That is always a delight.