Writing Week

After going to two great conferences, I needed to put into practice the things I learned. I decided that the Internet lured me into purgatory. I can get lost and spend hours checking emails, looking at links, viewing interesting news items etc. And that's not even going to Facebook!

I needed a better system. I decided I'd devote 4 focused hours to writing. During that time I would not check email. I would not check stocks or look at article. I would not go get a snack or think maybe the laundry needed to be moved. I would WRITE!

It seems to be working. I felt like I accomplished a lot. Even though there is still much more to do.  Then, after that 4 hours, I can do all the other stuff that needs to be done. Church stuff, accounting, connecting with people, cleaning house, etc. I actually did do some house cleaning and cleaning up the piles that seem to grow like weeds in our house.

I went visiting teaching. I went to the family history center and found some people and connected them in the right places. Tom and I went to the Temple on Friday.

One of the sisters I visit teach is mostly bed-bound. Her son takes care of her. Sunday the son fell in the bathroom and hurt himself. We visited Thursday and he was really feeling poorly, so he finally went to the ER. Turns out he had a perforated colon and they kept him at the hospital. That left the sister home alone. I guess she can get up and walk a bit, she just mostly doesn't.

So we coordinated for someone to go in Friday am and pm while I was at the temple. Then on Saturday she was visited and I went today after church. I don't know if she can get along for a long time on her own. I guess well see what happens with the son. My visiting teaching companion and I will go back over tomorrow and see about washing her hair.

The Darracq's recently returned from their mission to England. They spoke in church today. Good talks.  They are such dedicated people. It will be nice to have them back in the ward.

The weather has been pleasant this week and Tom has worked on painting the deck. He got the  back porch done and the back steps. We worked together painting the white railings. We need to do the remainder of the white railings and also all along the side and down the front steps. And rain and colder temperatures are forecast for Monday. I hope we get it done before it turns cold.

Tom went to Super Saturday with the youth on Saturday. They did a service project cleaning up a lot.  apparently kids all worked hard.  Tom came home wet with sweat. While he was gone, I tried making cream of broccoli soup. It was much easier than I expected. And mighty tasty.

I guess not a lot happened this week.  But it was a good week.

Two Events: PLF Live and AWAI Copywriting Bootcamp

It has been over two weeks since I’ve blogged. I’ve been busy. Some of it, I can’t remember. But I do know that the beginning of the week of October 6^th, I was focused on getting ready for my trips. Thursday morning I drove to Fayetteville and then flew to Dallas, Denver, and finally Phoenix. I’m not sure how I got so lucky to have three stops.

I couldn't pose with Jeff, but I got a picture with "Super Jeff."

I went to Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula Live event. It teaches people the formula for getting publicity for a product and inviting people to buy it. There were over 700 people at this event. It was amazing and full of energy. We went from about 9am to 9pm every day—Friday, Saturday, Sunday.  Brenden Buchard, a well-known infomarketer spoke as well. Yes, this is his energy level.

I shared a room with two other women who were extroverts. It was more fun than I expected. We really had a good time, although we didn’t sit together in the sessions. 

They made us take our stuff with us at each break and come back and sit in a different seat. As we worked through the PLF formula, we discussed things with neighbors and had a chance to meet a lot of different people. The group was so friendly that it was easy to invite yourself to join different tables of strangers at meals and get to know them, too.

While I thought about a product to launch, I really was there to meet people who wanted copywriters. I told them I was there to help people with great ideas find the perfect words to share it. Some were just starting out. I went to lunch one day with two self-improvement coaches. One had a mastermind group that cost $35,000 a year to belong to. I was a bit impressed.

What I learned:  You need to be your authentic self. People can spot a fake. You don’t need to be perfect. Imperfection can make you more likeable. Put it out there—take action, and work on perfection as you move along. Think about the transformation your product will make. How will your customer’s life be different because of your product?  Then think of the ripple effect. If she is changed, how will that affect her husband, children, co-workers, etc. And if they are influenced by her, how will they change lives?  When you imagine the transformation, it makes you want to share what you have that is of value even more.

They had a charitable organization there that they supported—Teacher Aid, that was building schools in Kenya for politically displaced communities. Over the course of the weekend they raised over $123,000—enough to build an entire school!

The picture is in front of the hotel. I had a fantastic time there. I really was all in. I talked my voice out and attended everything. I even went into the bar to visit (and eat a hamburger) and met my best contact there. Sunday morning I went to early mass with my Catholic roommate.  Note the beautiful stain glass window I got to look at during the mass. 

Monday was pretty quiet. We slept in a little, packed, checked out, and I worked on organizing notes and things. I joined some others and took a shuttle back to the airport, then hung out some more until my 11:30pm flight. I got some sleep on the plane, landed in Atlanta at 3:30 Pacific time… so not a lot of sleep. I then got to West Palm Beach airport about 10:30am. I got to the hotel about noon and sacked out for a few hours.

Having given my all for PLF, I had less energy for the AWAI Copywriting Bootcamp. So I set my sights a little lower, and accomplished everything I wanted there, too.

This is the view from my hotel room.  Thanks to Steve, I got a great room with breakfast and snack privileges. 

I pitched an idea for a report to Rebecca Matter, the co-owner of AWAI on Tuesday night at the Lounge (bar) where Circle of Success members gathered to greet. She liked it, so that was exciting.

Wednesday we started with lunch and went on a full run from that point. I think we ended at 9pm after the networking dinner. AWAI’s hours were mostly 7am to 7pm. Speakers were Bob Bly Herschell Gordon Lewis, Dan Kennedy, John Carlton, Richard Armstrong, and Brian Kurtz of Boardroom.

 I had been introduced to Brian at the PLF Live event by my roommate. She’d gone to a Boardroom event just a few weeks earlier. I told him I was writing a spec assignment for Boardroom and he gave me two CD’s with former promotions—examples of the best copywriting! They were fantastic and very helpful.

I also discovered the benefits of networking. Several of the speakers were at the Clayton Makepeace event I’d gone to in April—including Clayton himself. I was able to connect with them again. A group of us women went out to lunch and I was surrounded by successful copywriters. It was very empowering.  One afternoon we walked a bit. Here is a photo of me and a pretty inlet.

I wanted to meet with Lori Haller, who had designed the book I wrote for Rebecca Rice. She’d encouraged me to focus on writing renewal letters, and I wanted to learn more. While we were talking about ways to keep customers loyal, a vendor walked up and handed me his card. He said he’d overheard our conversation and was interesting in talking to me about writing renewal letters. Wow!

When I went to Job Fair, I spoke with many of the financial newsletter companies and a number of them were interested in this “back end” of retention and renewals. So I plan to make this area work for me. I had a chance to speak to Clayton one-on-one and ask him for advice on structuring both renewals and pricing. He spoke for about 10 minutes and every word was gold.

So I left Bootcamp Saturday with a plan of action, some job prospects, and a lot to do. I rode to the airport with one of the staff members of AWAI and Kevin Halbert, son of legendary copywriter Gary Halbert. We had good conversations.

Flights were uneventful and I arrived in Fayetteville airport about 9:30pm. My trusty GPS helped me find the hotel in the dark and I crashed as soon as I could. I asked for a wake-up call at 5:15 as I planned to leave at 6am and drive the 4 hours to Mountain View for their 10am ward conference on Sunday.

The wake-up call didn’t come, but I awoke at 5:47. AKK!  Forget the shower. I cleaned up, packed, grabbed some breakfast and was out the door before 7:20. I had to drive some in the dark, but this was the beautiful sunrise I saw on my way.

In spite of the GPS’s attempt to take me on some back roads, I got to my meetings at 10:03!  It was good to be there with faithful saints living in very rural communities. After church we had some delicious soup and rolls and then headed out to visit some families. I need to learn how to visit shorter. We took nearly 1 ½ hours. I finally got home about 5:30.

I was happy to see my Sweetie!

I asked Tom what he wanted me to say about his weeks. He said to say he just ate bon-bons all week. I know he helped the neighbor build a shed with some of the wood and tin roofing we took down from the Whiteville rental. And he tried to fix a leak in another neighbor’s roof. It was caused by a leaky vent pipe. He ordered a new one but the wrong size came in.

On Saturday the Stake had a huge work day. They went to Salem to help renovate the old school house. Tom pulled up bad hardwood flooring and painted walls. Others cleaned up the yard and worked in other rooms. It’s a lovely old stone building, with the names of graduating class members since about 1940 imprinted in the sidewalk leading up to the school.

I know he went out with the missionaries a couple of times and did lots of other bishop kinds of things.

Branson Gettaway

This was a good week.  The weather is cooling off, the garden is winding down.  The house we've been working on is rented... but not finished.

Let me explain. We've finished with the inside, but the garage needs some trim painted, and I thought since the extension to the pump house was tacky and leaked, it needed to be taken down. At this point, I probably would have left it. But diligent Tom was determined he could dismantle it.

He got the metal roof off. (Don't ask me why it was leaking with a metal roof. Maybe because of the thousands of nails holding it on.) He closed off the doorway into the addition and put a window into that new wall.  Then he took the siding off the addition.  Only 4 support posts remained.  I came over and helped him by pulling one support out with a chain and pick-up truck.   He whacked at the others with a sledge hammer and thunk.... the roof fell down, except on the edge of the pump house.  He got all that cleaned up.  He just has the plank floor to finish taking up.

On October 1st the tenant moved in. She's made the place look very cute.  One drawback. When they came to fill the propane tank, they found a leak.  Tom worked to fix it... but I still smelled propane.  He called a plumber to come out.  Apparently when he put some trim on the floor, it punctured the line. oops.  But I'm glad they found the problem.  They will come out again this Wednesday to fill the tank.  I hope all the leaks are cleared up!

It seems the more I try to focus, the more fragmented I become.  I'm trying to finish up all the last details of the book-- figuring out how to get in on Amazon and how to get an e-book and ISBN numbers for that.  It's time to work on my HVAC newsletter.  In preparation for AWAI Bootcamp, there are spec assignments that come out.  Some have due dates early in October.  Some are after bootcamp.  I tried to get some done early.

I'm also going to Product Launch Live the week before Bootcamp.  I want to create a new website for that and am keeping up with all the Facebook traffic so I might know who to connect with when I get there.  I just realized all that traffic is cluttering up my timeline. So sorry for anyone else if they see all that stuff.  I'm really not sure if they do or not.

In my stake calling, I learned I'll need to serve dinner to the people going to leadership training meetings just before the Saturday evening session.  This time, I'm smarter. After discussing with my counselors, we decided to ask the wards to help out.  I feel a bit of guilt for not doing it all on my own.  But a friend commented that my strengths were in helping the sisters grow spiritually.  I should get help from those who are blessed with talents in the meal and decorating areas.  So I am.

Wednesday I went to family history again and enjoyed the work. Thursday Tom and I left early for Branson. He'd been working so hard, I just wanted to give him a break.  We went to Silver Dollar City in the morning. It rained a bit while we were there, We saw a wild west show, listened to the mustang trainer talk and heard a cowboy poet.  We wandered through the barn with many talented western artists and bought a cowboy humor book.  We also looked through the craft stalls.

The rain stopped for the outdoor stunt show, but started sprinkling as soon as it was over. When it began seriously rumbling, we headed for the car.  By the time we checked into the timeshare, the roads were rivers of water. Do you know you can get drenched in just 20 feet of running to shelter?

We were cursed or blessed with spotty internet.  So we watched movies and read.  We went to breakfast/brunch with the Darracqs who had just returned from their mission in England.  We had a lovely time learning about their time there.  And they directed us to a great breakfast place-- Bobby Gails.  It was so crowded we had to wait both to park and to eat.  But the food was fabulous!

We did make our traditional pilgrimage to Andy's frozen custard.  I did some work the rest of the day while Tom read, napped, and watched movies.  We left early Saturday morning in order to be home in time for General Conference.  We made a quick stop at Aldis and got home with a few minutes to spare.

Had great conference talks on Saturday.  Tom went to church for the afternoon and evening sessions. And offered ice cream sundaes for the men who showed up.  He went into church for Sunday's sessions as well.  I stayed home.  I invited Ernie over and he came to both sessions.

I tried a crockpot recipe for a kind of cafe rio chicken and served it on tostitos.  IT was very tasty.  There was a sister who came to conference that needed a place to stay-- daughter of a ward member.  So she came to dinner and will sleep downstairs.  There's also a traveling nurse from Pea Ridge, AR who will be working at the hospital one week on and one week off for the next few months that needs a place to sleep for the weeks he's here.  We just learned about that, so he'll stay here the first week.

I'll leave Thursday for PLF Live and then go on to AWAI Bootcamp and get back to Arkansas on the night of the 18th.  So you may... or may not get a post next week.

Week- with pictures

This doesn't seem to be a dramatic week.   Monday I was still recovering from the RS Women's Retreat and then branch conference. We did go and buy flooring for the Gassville house that day.

On Saturday, when I was exhausted, I got an email from the person I thought I was rooming with for PLF Live in Scottsdale Oct 9-13-- who said, oh... I'm not sure this will work out.  Can you find someplace else?  AKKK!  After I was sure I'd had a room, I'd given up the two other reservations I'd made.  And I knew places were booked.

The blessing of kindness came back to me.  A friend said she was going and so I emailed her and asked her if she wanted my room reservation.  She did, so we made the hand-off.  I called her to see if she needed a roommate.  She had just that day decided she couldn't go.  So I got the room back... but no roommate.  I asked on a bulletin board for roommates, and got one by Friday.  So all is well... after a bit of stress.

I worked on some spec challenges for the AWAI Bootcamp I'm going to  Oct 14-18th in Delray Beach FL. (I'll be taking a red-eye between the conferences.)  And I've been learning more about product launching. I've also been trying to learn about fulfillment.  This is when you have books but you want someone to store them for you and ship them out when they are sold.  In this case, we also want someone else to be the "book store" to take the orders and the money.

There are many places happy to do this.  They just charge varying amounts of money.  That's why books cost so much. Everyone takes a nibble.  Amazon charges $3.53 in total charges just to take your order and send it on to someone else to ship it.  Do we want simple, cheap, or easy? How much are we willing to pay for easy? Fortunately I collect the information, and someone else makes the decisions.  It's been interesting.

We are just about done with the house. It's turned out cute.  I wanted to show before and after pictures, so here's the before:

  Here is the after-- cleaned and repaired siding, shutters, painted porch, new front windows:

 Bathroom before-- wall paper, splotchy paint, dropped ceiling, offset cabinet.  After has fresh paint, new light fixture, centered cabinet.... still needs crown molding.

The original tub surround was broken, so Tom put tile in.  I like his zig-zag insert.  I thought the grout would be more gray than brown.  oh well.

 

Kitchen before- green paint, dropped ceiling, curled vinyl flooring.DIRTY stove.

 New paint, new floor, cleaned stove, coving over cupboards, new lights... soon to be new window.

 Family room: window a/c, metal rod to support roof, brick fireplace backing and hearth, broken front window, carpet removed, staples left on floor.

Beam reinforced so support could be removed, brickwork removed and patched, walls painted, new window, plank vinyl flooring put down, baseboard.

We may have mentioned that Rebecca's rental had a HUGE oak tree that was dying and needed to be cut down. It had limbs hanging over the house that were becoming brittle. We had professionals chop it down. Then Tom went over with a friend and a log splitter and got to work.  I had him stand by the wood pile today to get a picture.  He said he usually doesn't cut wood in this attire.

 And these are two of our adolescent chicks. I still can't tell if they are male or female.  A friend said the males will disguise themselves-- even to not growing a top comb if there's another rooster around. Eventually they must come out of the closet, I expect.

 Rebecca sent me her old Nook.  I downloaded some of the books I had on the computer onto it.  I hope I can spend some time reading and enjoying.  I want to get the scriptures onto it.

Saturday we had our annual fish fry at the ward. We took chocolate cake and a green bean salad.  Both were well received.  They had leftover fish and chips.  After they gave as much away as they could get people to take, they were going to toss the rest.  I brought it home for the happy hens.

The hen that was nesting but playing musical nests after she'd sat on her eggs for a week or so, finally gave up.  We'd been taking her eggs for a while. She wasn't happy, but neither was I with her for wasting her eggs.

I enjoyed the Women's Broadcast last night.  It focused on making and keeping covenants.  It was very international in flavor and very uplifting.

Women's Retreat-- long post

This week was a crazy busy week.

Monday I picked up my fair stuff.  I got a bunch of second place ribbons and 4 blue ribbons.  Umm… my veggie stems were not all cut to the same ½ length.  Some of my canned foods had too much or too little head room.  I guess I need to be more careful next time.  It is fun to take stuff to the fair and see it there.

Tuesday I revised/rewrote a children’s story for my counselor friend.  She was pleased with it.  That’s always nice.  My client’s book still needed a forward.  She finally got a hold of the guy.  He’d written it 2 weeks ago and sent it off… but no longer had that computer to get the document and resend it.  So I called him on the phone, interviewed him and got what he wanted to say, wrote it up and sent it off to him for his approval, and the client, for hers.  So Wednesday about 4 pm, the approval came back and the book was then ready to go to the printers.  Apparently the printer will make a final copy and send it out to be checked—color, page layout, etc.  Fortunately it will go to the client, not me.

She does want to move onto marketing and fixing her website.  We’ll see how that goes.  And she has another book to finish.

Wednesday I worked on finishing up the format for my Oil in My Lamp program booklet and the programs for the women’s retreat.   The Oil booklet is 27 pages long. But since there’s 4 pages to a sheet of paper (2 on each side) that’s 7 pages total.  I had a really tough time trying to get it printed on both sides here at home.  Finally I printed single sheets and taped them together.

Then I took them to the church and prayed they’d go through the printer properly.  They did and so I had a 2 sided copy.  I needed to print 3 batches of 50 programs for the Women’s Retreat.  I printed a few extras.  We were dividing into classes and each program had an assigned group number.   I wanted 175 of the 7 page booklets, but they seemed to take FOREVER to print.  I kept putting in reams of paper.  And I got to thinking; they couldn’t possibly be using that much paper.  I was printing long after all the activities were done at church.  Finally I shut canceled the remainder of the job.  Turns out I had about 90 printed.

Thursday at 10am I had two sisters come over and help me put together the programs. We folded the exterior scrapbook paper stock, and the interior program.

I had cut both to size at church on their great paper cutter.  Unfortunately as I was lifting up the handle one time, I misjudged and lifted on the blade with my thumb.  Dang!  That think is SHARP!  Got a deep cut and I had to try not to bleed on my stuff.  Fortunately, Pam Pfeifer went and got me a Band-Aid and that helped a lot.  I guess that’s what visiting teachers are for.

So we folded and stapled and then folded in the edges and glued the Saturday programs.  Then we sorted and folded and stapled the 7 page booklets.   It took about 3 hours. I was so grateful I’d asked for help!  As soon as they left, I raced back to church and printed off another 70 booklets.  While they were printing, I grabbed the completed pages and folded and stapled them.  So by the time the printing was done, the booklets were, too.

Then I stopped by the grocery store to get meat for dinner.  We invited the missionaries over and a neighbor couple from down the street.  It was an early dinner because Tom and I both had meetings later.  I fixed fried chicken, baked potatoes, beans, apple salad, green salad, and ice cream for dessert.  It turned out well, but it was a race to get cleaned up and off to our meetings on time…. We didn’t make it on time.

Tom had a meeting for Helping Hands, the charitable organization that owns the van the church uses for temple trips.  I had Relief Society Homemaking meeting.  I stayed long enough to learn how to make ribbon flowers and cloth flowers and grape wreaths.  And to taste the yummy snacks.  They watched Ephraim’s Rescue, but I didn’t stay for it all.  I was tired.

Friday I needed to pack our clothes and pack all of the stuff I’d collected for the women’s event.  I also needed to cook 20 pounds of chicken breasts.  I’d asked at church and collected two Foreman Grills.  Tom found one at a house where the tenant moved out.  So I had three pretty good sized grills.  It only took about an hour to cook them all.

But I also had bread boards and bread knives, platters and decorative napkins, various food items like 7 bottles of red wine vinegar, 3 cups of sugar, 3 quarts of pickled beets, a large basket to collect recipes in, gifts for the three workshop teachers, and various odd and sundry things. All in all it took an ice chest, a laundry basket, five bags and a hanging bag to get us there.

We also stopped by the church to load 6 round tables into the back of the truck.  So we drove the truck to West Plains.  We had time to check into the hotel and have dinner before we met at the church to set up.  I thought 6-8 would be sufficient time.  But, frankly we were figuring it out as we went along, and we actually got done closer to 10pm.  We decorated tables and bulletin boards; we set up tables for displays and organized the programs and booklets.  I made probably 350 oz. of dressing in 29 oz. batches. (Basically triple Mom’s Nicoise Salad dressing recipe.

One helper came with her 12 doz. eggs as yet uncooked, pealed or chilled. Sigh. So my counselor took them home and spent 3 hours (with her kids) doing it.

Saturday we arrived at 8am and started putting the Nicoise salads together. We worked until 9:40, and then turned it over to Tom and some other men to finish up.

The program was called “Pearls of Great Price.”  I conducted the opening exercises… as we realized we needed more chairs in the chapel (my 1^st counselor went to take care of that.)  And we didn’t have a chorister… um... I did that.  But mostly things went very well.  Pres. Roylance spoke about visiting teaching.  We had a great musical number with women of all ages singing, “If the Savior Stood Beside Me.”  We broke into workshops about: 1. The Scriptures are pearls of great price (Finding peace and comfort in the scriptures.). 2. We are pearls of great price (loving, appreciating, and valuing ourselves.) and 3. We are pearls in the community. (Serving in the community and standing up for what is right.)  Each sister got a single pearl necklace to remind her of her value.

Michele, my first counselor is holding the necklaces we gave the sisters and on the chair is a gift we gave each teacher.

We came back to the chapel and I introduced the Oil in My Lamp Program—a goal setting program designed to help the sisters draw closer to the Lord and be more prepared to serve him.  Then we went to lunch.  The tables looked lovely with the salad, dressing, and bread and butter on it. Sisters seemed to enjoy the salads and loved the Nicoise dressing. We had ice cream sundaes for dessert.

A few of my men didn’t show up and so we were short people to clean tables and serve desert.  The men worked like Trojans.  And bless the women’s hearts, many pitched in to help.  They didn’t ask, they just saw a need and did.

We got lots of compliments, so I guess it went well. I was soooo tired.  We spent some time cleaning up.  Again, lots of people pitched in to help.  We estimated 150 people.  I think we had about 140ish.  So the food actually came out pretty well.  We had some leftover tomatoes, green beans and eggs-- and lots of dressing. But we found homes for them all.

Tom and I came home and I mostly collapsed.  Tom went out and mowed the entire yard!

Today I had a branch conference in Ash Flat. So Tom and I were out the door a little after 7am. Good training and branch conference. And we enjoyed a great “Linger Longer” potluck after church.  We celebrated Dorothy Wagner’s 110^th birthday there.  She was in a wheelchair, but alert and engaged.  I think I mentioned earlier that she’d joined the church at 102 years old.  I had a little difficulty with droopy eye syndrome during parts of the service.

Now I’ve blogged and written to missionaries.  Tom is off visiting.  I may take a nap.

Fair Week

I feel like things are moving forward this week.   The client approved the design for the book.  The front cover looks spectacular and I love the interior design.  The printer will also do fulfillment.  She is firm in her decision to print 3000 books.  So if they move slowly, it’s her decision.

I picked up a little story revision job and need to work on a proposal or two.  Probably need to redesign a website, too.

Tom helped a new family move into the ward.

Monday night we went to our usually Empty Nester activity.  This one had a conservative bent.  We had a speaker talk about getting involved in Arkansas politics and being an informed voter. For the first time in my memory, Arkansas has a national presence as our Senate race is one of the swing states that could go Republican.  I’m hoping for a change.  But even if it occurs, I don’t know how much change we’ll see in the national government.

Tuesday I had the last of my Circle of Success calls for AWAI (my writing).  It was a peer review of headlines and leads. Good review and learning.  Then I quickly gathered things for the fair.  I took Anaheim, Bell, and Cayenne peppers, green onions, and some grape tomatoes.  I also took peach jam, applesauce, dill pickles and canned peaches.  And I took one piece of pottery.  I had to be there before 2pm because I volunteered to help check in photographs.

It was mostly busy. There were 13 classes in color and the same in black and white. You could only have one photo per class, except the “other” category could have 3 submissions.  Occasionally we had people with 30 photos to enter. With each entrant you had a process:

1. Check all photos to insure correct matting and no duplicate entries. If there were 2 in a class, gently explain they’d need to choose which they wanted to enter.  Check to see if they were in the youth, Jr, or 4-h category and tag appropriately if so.

2.  Write on their tag- division, category, class, entrant’s number and name.  Then you gave them the middle of the triplicate form, folded the back paper up and over the name on the front paper and clipped it to cover it from the judge. 

3. Paperclip the tag to the photo and take the strings from the tag, fold them over to the back of the photo and tape them to the back.  At the same time, check to see that they’d written their name on the back.

4. After a stack collected, file them in the proper bin—child, adult, b/w or color, and class.

It took several minutes to do each entry.  There were about 6 of us working.  In the few lulls, we chatted.  I finished about 7:30. 

Tom worked at the house most of the day and oversaw the chopping down of a GIANT tree in the yard of one of Rebecca’s rentals.  He got home about the same time I did.

Wednesday I went with Tom to work at the house from 9:30 to 3:30.  While he tiled the tub surround, I painted shutter wood slats and scrubbed the wooden floors in the bedroom and hall.  I also cleaned the Pergo floor in the laundry room and straightened that room. It looks pretty good now.  Came home and fixed dinner.  We had a new family that moved into the ward and they came over to dinner.

Thursday Tom gathered a truckload of wood and brought it home. One of our rentals came empty, so he checked that out and started cleaning it up.

I did some writing and worked on the Relief Society program for Saturday. Picked beans. In the afternoon we went to the fair.  The weather has moved to fall weather.  Cool and drizzly.  It was very nice. I was almost chilly!  We enjoyed the exhibits and chatted with people we knew.  We even watched the baby beauty contest for babies from 0-6 months old.  But didn’t stay long enough to see that Jen Bogart’s granddaughter came in first!  My entries into the fair got about ½ reds and ½ blue ribbons.  Perhaps next year I should give myself more than a half hour to pull my entries out of the garden and off the shelves.

When we came home, Tom wanted to empty the bed of the truck, so we tossed and rolled the logs off the truck. Tom split about 1/3 of them and I stacked them.  Friday we stopped by the house to see how much was left.  A lot!  I think the bottom round is about three feet across.  Tom thinks renting a log splitter and splitting them on site is the most manageable route.  Then there are leaves to rake and general debris to pick up.

Friday was our 44^th Anniversary and we had a nice time. We drove to Branson.  I activated the phone I got on Adam’s plan. It’s a sprint phone and we are in the roving area, but I think it will work here.  New cell phone: 870 565-7700

We did some shopping, ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then shopped some more. We had ice cream at Andy’s and then headed home.  We took a scenic route.  We stopped in Harrison at Aldi’s for food, and came home about dusk.  The wood called to Tom and he split and stacked another 1/3 of the truckload.  That evening we watched another episode of Eureka.

Saturday I picked beans, pulled the last of the beets, and worked in the garden.  The weeds are winning, but it’s hard to care when most everything is winding down.  We have some GIANT sunflower heads that are bent over.  Hope we actually can harvest the seeds.

I cooked and pickled the beets.  Tom worked at the house a bit grouting the tub surround.  I got some essential oils ready to take to my counselor who has been sick with that viral cough and lung thing going around.

Then we drove to West Plains for Super Saturday. It was the Trek reunion.  We saw pictures from the Trek and each “Ma” and “Pa” got a minute to share their thoughts on the trek.  Then the youth had a dance.  It was fun to reconnect with our “children.”

At the Super Saturday, I ran into my RS president who said she had not yet received invitation for the Stake RS Woman’s Retreat for next Saturday.  AKKK! This Sunday was the last day to get them out.  I came home and recreated the design and printed them off on cardstock and then just paper. They looked nice, although not as elegant as the expensive Vistaprint printed ones.  However, the sisters were glad to get them.

We had good meetings today. I passed out the invitations at the door to Sacrament meeting.  I collected George Forman grills to cook the chicken with and platters to serve the salad.  I have men to help set up and serve on Saturday.  One by one things seem to be falling into place.

I hope and assume that if I do the best I can, the Grace of Jesus will take me—and the program-- the rest of the way and it will all work out so the sisters have a wonderful time.

Writing Week

This letter could be pretty short: I wrote.

Early Monday morning I packed up and headed for Bella Vista.   I had set up a “Hot Week” timeshare there.  $199 for a 2 bdrm for a week.  I really only needed one room.  But since I had two rooms I invited Miranda and Dan for the last few days.

This timeshare seems a bit smaller and more casually run than ones I’ve been in previously. Since it was a holiday, they’d closed shop.  I had to call, get the lockbox number and just take out my key and information package.  Not quite the pampering I was used to.  On the other hand, no one asked if I wanted to sit in on a timeshare presentation.

The room was nice.  I tried to be accountable for all my time—recording each thing I did. When I went to bed Monday night I thought, I’ll let the light wake me up.  It did.  At midnight, and 2am and 5:30 when the lightening lit up the room! It rained Tuesday morning. And later I walked around the property to see what was there.

I completed my goal to go through the Clayton Makepeace course again and made progress on the Product Launch Formula course.  I did some marketing and some planning on future marketing and I wrote a special report for my Teen Style U website.

I finally got my client to approve the book I wrote so it could go to the book designer…. Only two weeks late.  I felt SUCH a relief. Then I discovered an error.  Sigh.  So then she said she’d really read the book. Hope she does.  I’d hate to have 3000 copies with an error. 

Then I worried again. I’m a writer. Not a publisher. I don’t know the best method to publish.  Certainly hiring a printer is cheaper than Print on Demand (POD).  It works best if you have people coming to you asking for the book, selling it on your website or at presentations.  With POD—at least with Lightening Source, they’ll mail out, get it into libraries and book stores and on e-book. But you get less money.  Which is best for her?  Both maybe?  Any advice?

I planned simple food and it worked out pretty well.  I took the occasional walk, worked at the sofa, worked at the table, read a bit on the lounge chairs on the deck.  While I did a lot, there’s always more that could be done.

I held a phone RS Presidency meeting on Tuesday night.  We got a lot worked out for our Women’s Retreat.  We’ll meet again by phone on Sunday night.  There are just so many details to worry about.

Miranda and crew arrived just after dinner on Thursday evening.  It was fun to see her, Dan and her munchkins.  They were delighted to see all the timeshare had to offer.

Dan went off to work on Friday and Miranda and the boys spent the morning going swimming and miniature golfing.  They found the Recreation center and brought back games, a puzzle and a high chair.

In the afternoon, when Dan came back, we all headed back to the pool.  I was a little worried about sunburn—since I’m totally white, but I used sunscreen and didn’t stay long.  In the evening we worked on the puzzle and watched Ella Enchanted.

While I was recreating, Tom was diligent and went to the St. Louis Temple. He also spent the week working on the Whiteville house—putting in windows, working on trim and siding, and I don’t know what all else. 

Saturday we packed up and headed our separate directions.  It was drizzling there and rained most of the way home. It rained as I stopped at Aldi’s to shop.  It rained until I crossed the Cotter Bridge. None of the needed rain came to our house.

I stopped to admire Tom’s handiwork at the house. It looked great!  I came home and unpacked.  We went to a baptism from 4:15-7… well, Tom wanted to be there early.  Then we went to dinner at our favorite little Italian place.

A neighbor had agreed to cut out breadboards for our Stake Relief Society event. He got them cut out, but they needed the hole to hang them on.  So when we got back home, we had 20 holes to drill.  And they really needed some sanding too, so we got them sanded, and the car covered with sawdust!  That last part was not intentional.

I had promised to get them to my painter by Sunday.  I was able to deliver them because of Tom’s great sanding and drilling efforts.  Today was a slow Fast Sunday, but a good one.  Tom went off to West Plains for a meeting. I was able to call Rebecca and visit with her before I left for church. It was great to hear her voice and feel closer to her.  I’m so grateful things have worked out well with the move.

Today when I went to feed the chickens, I saw that one of the adolescent chicks—the black and gray one, had fallen on hard times.  It’s carcass was scattered on the floor of the nesting house. I was so sad.  I expect it fell afowl of a hen and got pecked to death.