Happy May Day

When I was a little girl and we lived in San Diego, we would celebrate May Day.  We'd weave little baskets of paper... or maybe it was that we'd weave paper through strawberry baskets and then put flowers into them and take them to neighbor's houses.

There was a little old lady who lived across the street.  She was always so nice to us.  We'd put the basket on the doorstep and ring the bell and run away.  So today I send you virtual flowers!  Enjoy.

It's amazing how events LOOM when they are approaching and then... after they are finished, in just a few days they seem so far away. Like it happened such a long time ago. That's the way it feels with our Women's Retreat.  Yes, we need to evaluate and assess, see what went well and what needs to be improved upon. And we will start planning the next event.  But with worry and stress gone, the retreat suddenly doesn't seem so big after all.

This week I tried to get into a more relaxing routine with my writing.  I had a project to do each day and managed to pretty well get it done. Video script, Tech website, business articles and reaching out for new jobs.  I had a 3 day course on LinkedIn and got some good tips. And I made my hotel arrangements for the AWAI Bootcamp in Delray Beach and found a roommate to share expenses.  It was a sad day that brother Steve fell from grace and no longer has Marriott Elite status.  No concierge lounge and free breakfast for me this year. Sigh.

Tuesday we heard that Nathan would be returning from his mission on Friday.  He is receiving a medical release. He had been struggling with anxiety and depression. After he receives treatment, he may choose to continue his mission stateside, or move on to new challenges.  We are pleased with the hard work he has put into serving the Lord and wish him well as he moves forward in life.

Kera found a trampoline for us and this week Tom put it up.  It's a pretty big size... at least it looks that way to me.  On Thursday we had the missionaries and a new convert and her daughter over for dinner. Peyton enjoyed trying out the tire swing, zipline, and trampoline as her mom and I chatted.

Adam and Savannah put in an offer on a house and it was accepted.  Now they are going through the inspection process. It's always a challenged to look at the inspection report and try to determine what is significant and important to fix and what is just "normal wear and tear" and is to be expected.  We wish them well in making good decisions.

Saturday Tom and I went to a Family History event in West Plains.  It was a good meeting with lots of information about how to do research. Tom learned how to index. I learned more about censuses and the un-indexed 70% of the church records online and how to search them to find my ancestors.

Saturday night an amazing storm rolled in.  In the late afternoon we got nearly an inch of rain in an hour or so.  We had wild winds, pouring rain and hail.  You can see some on the deck that Tom recently re-stained.

The pictures don't do justice to the downpour. You'd need sound to go with it. 

 

And here, the sun is coming out, and it's still raining!  

So we looked to the other side and saw a double rainbow.  You can barely see one in this picture.
 

Then, after dark we heard more rumblings.  Suddenly all the lights went out for a second... then came back on and we heard a clap of thunder and got more rain.

Today was the last of the Ward Conferences for the year.  This one was at Mountain Home... so I had NO traveling to do.  That was nice! It did feel a little awkward to be presenting the lesson as Stake Relief Society President Fox... as opposed to just Sister Fox. But I think it went okay.

Warrier Dash and Women's Retreat

No, we didn't retreat from the warriors dashing. Two different events.

Monday and Tuesday I tried to catch up on lots of small writing jobs I and pushed back some to do the Motley Fool first 1000 words.  I edited the book for teachers on Seeddigging. I finished the second video script and worked on some web page stuff.

We tried a new web designer for the most recent tech start up company and he has had a slow learning curve. I empathize as I'm doing the same thing for Motley Fool, but he just hasn't seemed to be able to grasp the vision, have the technical expertise or the design eye that we need. We finally said, let's just finish this site and not use him again.

I empathized even more when Motley Fool came  back on Wednesday and said essentially the same thing to me-- there's too much gap between what we need and where your writing stands now. Part of it is my fault as I chose keeping a deadline over taking the time to let the work sit and review it a few more times.  But part is that this is a stretch for me in writing, and my writing probably isn't of the quality they need. They wanted to see more transitions... and I'm thinking, these transitions are clear to ME.  Sigh.  It hurt a bit. Made a little less painful by some severance money. But I also realized this kind of writing carries a lot of pressure and it felt good not to have that.

Tuesday Tom made a day trip down to Andy's to drop off 6 chicks and to pick up the trampoline. I was concerned about adequate food and water and heat for the trip, but we figured some temporary fixes and all seemed to go well. Kera had a place all nice and warm for them and they settled in well.

Aaron had texted me asking about the chicks and I remembered that he had been the boy who was so enamored with chickens in Kenya that one of the up-country mama's gave him a little rooster!

Wednesday... and the next few days.... I tried to get everything done so I'd be totally ready for the women's retreat. Tom printed off the programs for me, I collected napkins, easels, pictures, my ikabana vases, thank you notes, made name tags and numbers for the tables, write my talk (mostly an extended welcome and introduction of the keynote speaker) and reconfirm everything with the speakers and my counselors.

Tom was especially diligent in running every day this week. He heard that the place recommended coming in a 4 wheel drive vehicle. So he thought about taking the truck... but the three teens he was taking with him indicated some distaste for the cramped leg room in the back.  So they volunteered their parent's car. It seated 8-- enough that they only had to drive one car to the Warrior Dash. So that was a good choice. Especially good since it meant I could drive the Toyota to West Plains for my event.

The chicks have been growing. First they fledged out little tail feathers, then their wing feathers started growing longer. Now they are getting little shoulder feathers above their wings and they are starting to fly more. Jonathan and Kristy had a "what were we thinking?" moment. They decided they really didn't need any more chicks, so Miranda got their lot of 6.

Saturday I left about 2:20 to drive to West Plains with all the stuff in the car. I met Caroline my first counselor at the church and we proceeded to cut up chicken and mozzarella cheese for the chicken wraps, and decorate for the next 5.5 hours. My secretary and her daughter showed up and did the lion's share of the decorating. She put up posters, set up tables and chairs, found tablecloths, and put up door signs. We arranged pictures of Christ in all of the class rooms and the chapel and put ikebana vases next to them. I can't figure out how it can take so long to bone and cut up chicken and cheese.  But I guess for 110 people it just takes longer than for 6.

My secretary took tons of pictures of the decorations... but I think this one may be the only one that came out.  Note the peacock feather in the ikebana arrangement.

We left about 8:30, checked into the hotel and then went to Subway for dinner. Then we crashed.  Returned to church at 8am and still didn't get all the tomatoes and basil cut before I needed to leave and start the program. While we had some help from the elders quorum in the kitchen, Caroline stayed in and help out, so she missed the classes.

I really think we had a great program. The teachers were spiritual and insightful. We had some serious classes and one class where sisters role played ways women of power would act. There was lively interaction and lots of laughs in that class. I think I did a better job of planning, preparing, and then letting the Lord worry about it all coming out okay. The person responsible for a really lovely gift we were to give the sisters made an error and had to redo them and only got 65 done. I thought I'd be upset, but I just felt like it would all work out, and it seems that it did. The way they were handed out, those that didn't get them probably never knew others did. And two of the presenters also handed out very nice things to the sisters.

When I got home about 4pm, I checked on the chicks and chickens and cats, put food away... and mostly vegged for the rest of the day.

 before the race

Tom left to go to the warrior dash about 3:30. They went straight to Miranda and Dan,s in Tulsa.  Andy and Katie were there as well. The next morning they were off to their 11:15 time slot. Apparently there was not a lot of mud at the beginning of the race and most did pretty well.  However, the last obstacle of the race was truly a mud pit! I'll try to post before and after pictures for a true vision of their exquisite muddiness. I talked with one of the young women who ran the race and she said Tom was the fastest one.

After they got cleaned up, they went to Andy's for ice cream and then headed home. Deborah kindly made some 7 layer dip, so they stopped at her house for about a half hour to visit and munch. They got to Mountain Home about 8:30, I think... and looking a lot cleaner than I expected.

Today I substituted for the choir director during choir practice and led the music in Sacrament. We had good meetings. This was the first time I took, my Microsoft Surface-- a 12" table with typing pad-- to church to use instead of book scriptures.  It seemed to work okay.  I'm not sure if it was faster or slower switching between books in the scriptures.

It's a lovely day.  The Japanese irises are blooming as are some of the roses. The grass is growing and the garden has spinach, lettuce, and peas taking off.  Seeds we planted on Monday have yet to show their faces.

Warrior Dash!

This past Saturday was the annual 'gather at Miranda's so we can run the Warrior Dash' outside of Inola, OK.   Andy, Katie, Miranda, Dan, two young women from Mountain Home and Tom participated.   These are just a few of the 160 pictures we managed to take.  The last obstacle presented the greatest challenge:  two foot deep mud.  And the pictures prove it!  Oh, and the guy in the funny suit and red mask, we never saw him before...

Deadline Week

Here's a spring picture of our house.

This has been a busy, focused week. It started with Monday's two hour Motley Fool call. They didn't say the work was trash... but they did say that there were a lot of changes that would need to be made to make it acceptable to their regulators.  So I needed to rework it and send back the first 1000 words by Friday.

This meant a ton more research.  I looked at historical research and current British news clippings.  I studied old promotions that demonstrated the kind of hedging language they needed.  Not "will" but may, could possibly, might, in our considered opinion there's a possibility this stock might see an increase...
 I like it because it's genuine and honest, but also different from the way it's typically done in the US.

Monday we also prepped for chicks.  Tuesday we got up pretty early and drove about 2.5 hours to Lebonon.  It turned out to be a little longer as we took a wrong turn going up and a little scenic drive going home.  We found Cackle Hatchery and it took about 5 minutes to get the chicks.  A little anticlimactic...

When I got home,  it took time to get the chicks settled.  Since the temp was to drop to 39 degrees, Tom wanted the chicks in the house. I worked on a Video Script for an insurance agent.  We also figured out flights to LA to celebrate Mom's birthday the end of May.

The chicks lasted perhaps 24 hours in the house before I insisted they... and their smell... be taken to the shed.  We put the old horse water tank in there with hay and heat lamps.  After adjusting the lamps a bit, they seem quite happy.  The rule is if the chicks cluster under the lamp... it's too cold.  If they avoid the circle of light all together... it's too hot.  If they're scattered  around, they are probably comfortable.

Wednesday I worked on the sales promo and then went and did pottery in the afternoon. I had made some of these ikebana vases, went and glazed them, and now it was time for gluing the tops and bottoms together.

I found the glue didn't seal the top and bottom well completely, so Tom helped me put silicone calk around the  base to seal it.  This is what one looks like with flowers.  They are flowering quince and a Japanese iris from our garden.

 Marian, the potter, has peacocks.  They are quite proud of themselves in this spring mating season. One is an olive peacock, the other, the traditional Turquoise.  Marian gave me some of their feathers to add to the Ikebana arrangements.

 

Thursday I revised and sent off the video script. I also spent ALL DAY on the sales promo. Tom, bless his heart,  spent all day with the missionaries.  It was supposed to be a drive to Branson and an exchange of missionaries at 8:30.  They sent off the first one... but the companion apparently wasn't scheduled to arrive until 2pm. It was an enforced restful day.

Friday again, I was deep into the sales letter.  I did get an email asking if I would edit a book.  And I got the go ahead to do more video scripts for the insurance agent and I have some tech websites to do... so my plate is feeling pretty full right now.  I did manage to get the sales letter off Friday late afternoon.

I also went out for a late lunch with the writer I'd done a short critique for. Nice older guy who lived in Compton when there was only orchards and Japanese farms. He was there for the "resettlement" of the Japanese.  Eventually he went to Alaska for 30 or so years. He wanted me to take a look at some of the life events he wrote about while he was living there.  Very interesting.  In the evening we watched Pirates of Penzance.  I enjoyed it a lot.

Parts of our garden are coming up.  We have been eating asparagus regularly.  Peas are starting to climb and spinach plants are getting their second leaves.  Tom pulled a radish, but the carrots just look like a short crew-cut. Actually, the weeds are probably taller.

Saturday I did a little work on the start-up tech websites, but stopped about noon to turn my attention to the Relief Society Retreat program for next week.  I got it typed up and the bios of the speakers edited and ready to print.  I went and bought parchment paper to print it on... and gas for my trip to Ash Flat's branch conference on Sunday. Also snacks for the youth who would be coming over for the Bishops Youth Discussion on Sunday.

In the evening we watched the Ultimate Gift.  A nice low key, feel-good, movie with no violence or swearing.

Today I traveled to Ash Flat.  We had good training with a new president and a good lesson, I think. We also met as a presidency and ironed out the last of the details on our Stake Relief Society Activity for next Saturday.  And, after a great lunch, we drove out into the country to visit a sweet sister.  I got home about 4:30.  Tom had good meetings and a successful youth discussion... especially if that's defined as 15 youth eating a gallon of ice cream  and all the brownies, bananas, grapes...plus most of the celery and carrot sticks.

I've sent out letters to grand kids, missionaries, and now the blog.  It's time for a game of 5 Crowns!

Back to the Real World

 We had such a good time at the sibs reunion and visiting family on the way back.This has been a “getting back into the routine” week. All the things that piled up while we were gone, or we put off, were still waiting for us when we got back home.  We had tried to keep up with some things on our travels.

We called on the status of the septic system on one of our rental properties.  Still no word about the variance.  I’m a bit afraid to bug them.  If they deny the variance… I don’t know what we can do. Maybe I should find out… maybe I don’t want to know.

Tuesday I started in on my long sales letter for The Motley Fool UK.  I had a Skype meeting with them and went off to merrily write my headline, lead and outline.  Actually, I was a bit intimidated with the idea and procrastinated for a bit.  But I was going to be gone part of Thursday and all of Friday, so I HAD to work on it.  I finally got some blank paper and sat outside and just started writing.  I think I created a strong piece.

I sent it off Thursday and got feedback by Friday night.  There were lots of places they didn’t think would pass the regulator’s standards.  Sigh.  I really thought I had toned it down and put in all the qualifiers.  Some places I will just have to find proof to back up the statements.

Tuesday I also got my hair cut.  Tom had meetings that night.  Wednesday was mostly working on The Motley Fool Promo for me.  Tom had meetings that night.

Thursday I tried to get some of my Women’s Retreat for the stake on track.  There are still loose ends to clean up.  Tom and I left about two and drove to Branson to meet Jonathan and Kristy. They were celebrating their anniversary and invited us to come along and go to Branson with them.  We had a nice dinner out. 

On Friday we went to Silver Dollar City. There were some new shows this WorldFest and we saw most of them. We left about 5pm and let Jonathan and Kristy go on all the roller coaster rides they wanted to after that. We tried to head to bed early.

 

These were the fire dancers from Samoa.  The one on the right is a chief and the world champion fire dancer.

 

This was the African Acrobats

 

I found their costumes must less modest than anything I ever saw in Kenya.

Tom was up a little after 4am to get ready to go to a youth temple trip.  It was a good trip for them. The weather was nice for the drive… although it was pretty blustery here.  They had 13 youth go.  Saturday I did some work and then went to Marians to glaze my Ikebana vases.  Some had broken during the drying phase so Marian, bless her heart, made more for me and fired them all.  I choose glazes I thought would be interesting.

Here are the tops of the Ikebana vases when they were still greenware.

 

As Marian says, you never can tell how they will come out.  The glazes can vary due to the way they are applied, the kind of clay, how quickly the temperature rises, how long it stays hot, how slow or fast it cools and probably lots more things.  It’s all chemicals and chemical reactions.  I suppose that is part of the art and serendipity of pottery.  I had a fun afternoon there and got home soon after Tom arrived home.  I hope to have the vases finished before the Women’s Retreat and be able to give them to the teachers and my counselors as gifts.

Today was a fantastic day at church. Testimony meeting was wonderful as were both Sunday school and Relief Society.  Our lesson was on the Atonement and was taught by a sister in a wheelchair.  She’s young, but with a debilitating disease.  She said when she was in seminary her teacher asked her what the atonement meant to her.  She said, “I like it.  I think it’s good.” Later she realized he was referring to her limitations in the wheelchair. She said, “I think everyone has a wheelchair. Some are on the inside and some on the outside.”

In speaking of the atonement, she said that no one had ever done that before—taken on all the sins of the world.  What an impossible task that must have felt like.  But the Savior trusted in Heavenly Father and trusted in the attributes he had been given and went and atoned for us.

I believe that each one of us has a mission to fulfil here on earth.  Like the Savior, we agreed to it in the pre-earth life.  And it occurred to me that, like the Savior, we need to trust in Heavenly Father and in the attributes he has given us to go forth and do… even with the tasks seem impossible.

Sibs Reunion

This is a two week post.

A week ago, we left on Tuesday to drive to Miranda's house. Up until that Monday, we thought we were going to drive to Las Vegas via Miranda.  But then things changed.

Mom suddenly was not doing well.  She was back to being about as sick as she was when I was there about a month ago.  So off to the hospital and they found fluid on the lungs.  Her heart was not able to get all the fluid out.  We also think the medicine was again partly to blame.  They decided to put in pacemaker. So she had that done on Thursday.

Since Mom couldn't travel, we decided to move the siblings' reunion to Laguna Woods instead of Las Vegas. So Tom and I spent Tuesday night and Wednesday night with Miranda and Dan and family and then made a beeline to Albuquerque.  We'd planned on spending two nights there and going to the temple and maybe doing some sightseeing.  Instead, we got up early on Friday and did a session at the temple.

Then drove to Needles, CA. Saturday we drove to Sally's house in Downey. Sue and Steve were there... and a sick Sally.  I slathered her in oils and she seemed to improve a bit each day of the reunion.

We watched the Women's session of the General Conference at Sally's house and we all went to church the next day.  Then we drove down to Laguna Woods. Tom and I stayed with Cynthia and Jim. Steve and Kathy were already with Mom.  And Sue, Steve, and Sally stayed at an AirBnB nearby. Cynthia and Jim are always such gracious hosts!

It was a low key reunion.  Mostly we ate, visited, ate, visited, put together jig saw puzzles... oh, like most reunions.

 Behold us eating a toasted meringue that was a bit resistant to biting through it.  We took the creative approach... but sometimes the fruit and the whip cream got in the way.

Each day Mom seemed to be a little better. The fluid was gone from her lungs and she used less oxygen... but still had a cough. We had a TON of food! Oh my goodness. No chance of going hungry. I guess that's what happens when you have lots of good cooks in the family.  Kathy made delicious sticky buns. We had ham and funeral potatoes, pot roast, baked potatoes and toppings... and enough left-overs for lunches and another meal.

Wednesday Tom and I went to the temple in the morning.  Then we went to their special shoe store and Tom got fitted for special inserts and both of us bought supportive shoes. Sue, Sally and Steve spent some time going through Cousin Walter's photos and letters.  Some from 1918-1921.

Thursday we left by 7am to start the trek home. We made the 14 hour drive to Albuquerque the first day.  We hit a few snow flurries, but for the most part it was a smooth drive. The second day we finally ran out of books on tape. Those really help the time pass. We made it to Miranda's house.  They had already left to go to Jonathan's and Kristy's so we had the house to ourselves.

We again left early to complete our drive to Jonathan and Kristy's house.  We actually went to their church to help them since they had the cleaning assignment for the week. Then we visited animals and watched General Conference at their house. Miranda made cinnamon rolls and Easter egg salad for lunch. Jonathan made pizza for dinner. The men went to the priesthood meeting in the evening.

 Here the boys are licking the flour off the counter top after the cinnamon rolls were rolled and into the pan.

 Pizza eating.

Sunday we went to church for the first session of conference.  In the morning, I listened to the Morman Tabernacle Choir's Messiah.  It was supposed to be a sing-along... but I thing Jonathan found an older version of the MoTab... still lovely.  What was fun was that Zachery and Alex were fascinated with the singing.  They'd just sit enthralled. At one time 2 year old Alex was on the balcony waving a stick and singing Hal-lu-yah!

After the second session of General Conference we headed home... to an amazingly busy week planned. Got most things unpacked and are now off to bed.