Hurrah for Family!

Our dryer has been making noise.  More and more it's sounding like a rock tumbler. Tom found the warranty and we are still within warranty for the engine for the next few months. We called Shays and they came out and checked it out on Monday.  Yes, it appears to be coming from the engine and there's one other place that could be causing problems.

They will order the parts. We will have to pay some of the cost, but should have a functioning, quieter dryer for a fraction of the price of a new one.  In the afternoon, I went visiting teaching.

Tuesday morning we had an appointment with the attorney for new powers of attorney, living wills and durable powers of healthcare. It's a bit sobering to make end of life decisions. But better we do it than leave it for the kids to guess. We hope we've given the kids all the powers they need to take care of any affairs they need to in our absence.

I thought I'd be home sooner and made an appointment for my friend to come over and work on her website. But our appointment ran over. I called my neighbor to keep an eye out for her.  And she arrived just a few minutes before I made it home.  We were finally able to transfer her website to her domain. We'd been struggling with getting all the pieces together for weeks. After that I spend some time working on the Chad promo.

When Tom came home he went to the neighbors and with another friend, got the last of her leaves collected and hauled off. Tom's project for the week has been to work on the fence along the back of our property. He bought some hefty wooden posts and has been out digging, leveling and pouring cement.  In the afternoon, I went out and helped him for a little while.

That evening our friend John came for scripture study.

Wednesday morning, Tom had a re-check at the dermatologists.  He thought the incision from the last melanoma looked good and was healing well. However burned off a few suspicious spots on Tom's face and he found another small mole that looked suspicious and biopsied it.  It turned out to be a basil cell carcinoma-- not so bad... but still needing some additional attention.

We were supposed to meet with a Croatian speaker over Zoom a bit later... but we never got a way to connect.  We've been trying to be a little more diligent with our language training... but it's easy to find other things that seem more urgent.  Wednesday I felt like I made serious inroads with the Chad promo.  Wednesday evening I started feeling really puny.-- headache, stuffy nose, cough. Even a little achy.  Gakk.  I had to be healthy for when the grandkids came.

So I started taking Inner Defense every 4 hours. When I got up in the night I took it. And I put Oregano on my feet... as I prefer that to diluted drops in the mouth.

Thursday I finished the hopefully last draft of the Chad promo and sent it to my copy coach. I soaked in the tub for a while. Margaret came over again and we spent about 3 hours working on her website.  We finished just in time for our meeting with our language coach. We seem to have a hard time getting the time right-- our time or Mountain time.  So we called an hour early. That was good because his other couple he was coaching at that hour was ALSO going to the Adriatic North Mission.  And we will be in the MTC together.  We are about the same level on the language, so we all worked together.

The hard part was that Miranda arrived just as our coaching session began. So we said a delighted hello, and then abandoned her for an hour.

The good part was that I was feeling better by that afternoon.

Another good part was that I was scheduled to have my colonoscopy on Thursday, but it was postponed because the doctor was sick.  I'm so grateful it was postponed.  I don't think I could have done the prep while feeling sick.  On the other hand, it would have been nice to have it over.

So the fun began! We got to hang out with Miranda, Rachael and Alex Thursday evening.  It was so nice to see them.

 Baby Rachel is such a happy baby. She smiles at everyone and the boys love her.

 Friday Miranda raked up sticks in the front yard, while Alex helped her pick up sticks.  While we were away, strong winds blew them down.

The cow's owner came over and he and Tom put in 200 feet of fencing along the back.  He was a great help man-handling the roll of fencing and putting it in place. I went out and helped a bit.

Then on Friday afternoon, about 4pm, Deborah and kids arrived.  We had been trying to finish up food in the freezer. So Friday we had hamburgers... 12 gone! Dan and Miranda's last two boys arrived later on Friday evening.

Saturday Tom wanted to continue with the fencing, but it was raining when we awoke.  So we worked inside.  We went through the food storage closet and some of the kitchen cabinets to see what canned goods we were not going to use in the next few weeks. We found some OLD stuff that no one should ever use and tossed that out.

Deborah was a big help packing books from the downstairs book shelves.  We have three of them... plus a few other photo albums hiding here and there. She was a careful, orderly packer. I know we will appreciate that when it's time to put them back on the shelves.

We had a turkey in the freezer for a while..... Somehow, with turkeys things always get out of hand. We decided it made sense to have turkey for Saturday lunch when we had invited Vela over to visit with Miranda and the rest of us. But if you have turkey... you need to have potatoes and yams and desert and... So Miranda made rolls and funeral potatoes... which were delicious! But somehow the blackberry cobbler didn't get into the oven until just before lunch. So things were a bit hectic and the stuffing never got out of the package.

However, we had a delightful lunch with Vela and spent hours catching up on things.  Then Tom and Dan went out to work on the fence.  After lunch was cleaned up, Deborah went back to book boxes and Miranda and crew went out for more stick picking up. I went out to help with the fencing.

Ummm.  I forgot to mention that Tom invited the sister missionaries over for dinner at 5:30. As I was coming back from the fencing area to check on Deborah, I realized it was 5:10!  I walk in the upstairs and there's monopoly, Jenga, and connect 4 on the floor in the living room.  The dining room table has two trays of plastic beads and trays (the iron to set kind) plus string and beads on the other end for stringing necklaces.  Not to mention the legos and card games on the floor downstairs. AKK!

I called all the kids in to clean up. And they did a really good job! Good thing we'd decided to have turkey sandwiches for dinner.  But then I realized some of the kids wouldn't like that.  So I took a count of those who preferred quesadillas for dinner and was in the process of making them when the Sister missionaries arrived. Everyon pitched in and soon dinner was on the table.  Dan took a hit for the team and went off to buy milk and ice cream to go on the blackberry cobbler we did not eat at lunchtime since Vela brought wonderful chocolate chip cookies.

After dinner Deborah bathed her kids, put them in pajamas and headed home. It was one jam-packed day.  On the plus side, we had lovely visiting, we met a new sister missionary, the kids played well together, and Tom and Dan strung another 200 feet of fencing.  We watched just a little bit of the Winter Olympics before crawling into bed.

Today there was no choir practice. Tom went in early for meeting and later was released as Young Men's president.  For the first time in 7 years, he will not need to go to church on Wednesday.  Still, he has worked with the youth for all that time and has a great love for them.

We had good talks on keeping the Holy Spirit in times of trial.  Our Stake theme for this year is becoming perfect... eventually.  It was encouragement to work toward perfection, but recognize that it's a more-than-a-lifetime goal.  To not get caught up in looking at others seeming perfection-- as shown on Facebook and twitter. And to recognize this is just their best side... not necessarily their real side. We can't compare ourselves with others. Only with where we've been and where we want to go.

February 11, 2018

I just spent time on Savannah's blog reliving our trip to Disneyland.  There were fun memories!  This was such a good picture of Tom I wanted to remember it.

We came home to no internet. I called on Saturday and the final step was to reset the modem.  Still didn't work. But I got something that popped up on the computer saying "knock, knock.  Let's connect."  First try didn't work.  But on Monday I tried again and ... it worked!  So once again we are in the land of the living.

We got a signed contract back from the Stephens... so we for sure have tenants in the house when we are gone. They will not come until after we leave, so we won't have a turnover time.  However, Tom has written out detailed instructions on everything from chicken care to generator... so I think we will be good.

The first of the week was spent running around doing all the things that had been hanging while we were gone. I got my new glasses... and later in the week Tom ordered a new pair. I picked up things from the cobblers and dropped off new items to be cleaned or fixed.

Tuesday, I had an appointment to schedule a colonoscopy.  Bahh.. not my idea of fun. I also got my hair cut. We planned on having our friend, John over for a missionary lesson that evening, but the weather turned cold with a little ice... so we put it off til next week.

Tuesday, Jim, Cynthia's hubby, went in for arthroscopic heart surgery. It didn't go as planned.  It punctured an artery and ended up in open heart surgery.  They resolved the problems in the heart, but Jim had a lot of bleeding.  He has been in ICU since that time and only now (Sunday) is he slowly coming out of a medically induced coma. Our prayers have been with them both. We've appreciated Cynthia's daily updates.

It will be a slow recovery for Jim with weeks spent in the hospital before going on to rehab.  What a shock it will be for Jim. He assumed he'd wake up Tuesday evening with the procedure over... and now it will be close to a week later!  All your prayers are invited as well.

Wednesday I spent a good bit of time on the Chad promo. I also had teeth cleaning and they found a small cavity.  So I need to return to have that filled. That evening we had the sister missionaries over for dinner and then Tom went to his Wednesday night Young Men's meetings.  He has also been spending time putting together self-reliance classes. We have facilitators for most of the classes, but he needed to get books and get them distributed and get the names of people in the classes to the facilitators so they could schedule the classes. It took some time.

Tom also spent much of the week working on the downstairs of our midway duplex. This is the one where the lady with stinky cats decided she'd rather fling cat feces all over the house and leave... instead of cleaning up the mess and staying. Our manager and her husband went and cleaned up most all of it and ripped out the carpet (only had it in the bedroom).  Tom came in and finished wiping down walls and baseboards. Then he painted it all with a fresh silver-gray paint.

Thursday we went to the attorneys to set up power of attorney for while we are gone. We are also trying to finish getting the last of our accounts into our trusts and with the correct beneficiaries. And we're trying to get the last of the tax stuff done so it all can be signed and such. We finally reconnected with our language coach. We developed a training plan to help us learn the language in an orderly manner.

In the afternoon, Tom went out to lay vinyl planking in the bedroom floor.  I had someone coming over to help with a website... but we really didn't have everything needed to move forward.  So after she left, I went out and helped Tom finish the last half of the floor. It looked nice!  We celebrated by going out to dinner.

This week my goal was to work on the Chad promo and try to get that well moved along. I  did a new middle-of-the-promo outline and sent it off.  Got back comments and did some research of facts, charts, expert quotes, testimonies and other kinds of proof that will support the things I say. Saturday I spent time starting to put it all together.  It always seems to go slower than I think it should.

I was a bit reluctant to set aside the Chad promo on Friday.  But Tom wanted to drive to Bentonville to see Katie and Aaron compete in the regional swim competition.  So we left about 10:30 and drove to Deborah's and visited with her for a little while.  Then we went on to the swim meet.  I'd forgotten just how noisy they are!  It was very much fun to see Katie win in her division and see Aaron shave so much time off his races. I think both had improved since the last time we saw them.  Russellville Girls took the regional meet and the Boys team came in second place.  So proud of them!

 Butterfly above, and 100 medley below.

The meet went from 3:30 to nearly 9pm. I had been fighting a cold again... or still.  And by the end of the meet was feeling a little under the weather. Fortunately Tom drove the nearly 3 hours home and I slept part of the way.  Also, it was a long time from our 12:00 lunch of PB&J in the car until a 10 pm dinner at McDonald's.  Perhaps that's why it tasted so good!  We got home at midnight. Crashed. And slept until 8am.

Saturday Tom worked around the house and I focused on the Chad promo. It's been a bit chilly here with lows in the teens and 20's and highs mostly in the 30's. We had a warming trend and Friday got up into the 60's before Saturday night's freezing rain.

It wasn't bad enough to put ice on the streets, but Tom had to scrape off a lot of ice from his windshield before he could drive to church.  And the back steps were slick as snot. Today I still had a cough and a runny nose.  I went to church and sang in the choir, but then came home.  With all the sickness going around, I figured I really didn't need to spread more.

In Sacrament, we had some sweet talks on teaching children by example when they are young and on how small things can make a big difference.

On the way home

The week of January 29^th, began with my trying to get over a cold. I had a long list of things to do and didn’t get a lot done. We learned that our marriage certificates had been sent to the home… but with no one to sign for them… they were about to be sent back. So we called a friend and arranged for him to pick them up on Tuesday.

Our neighbor said our internet had been out since the day we left. I called to see if they could troubleshoot it even though we were not there. No. They could not. Bummer. I suggested our neighbor call and see if she could be me and get it done. [But she did not.]

I worked on my email series and in the afternoon Mom, Tom and I went shopping at Costco. In the evening we had delicious hamburgers at Cynthia and Jims. Cynthia and Jim both are having heart issues. Jim went in for testing and later in the week went back to see if his test showed he’d be a good candidate to have his heart valve repair done as a “procedure” with an arthroscope… or as open heart surgery. Fortunately, it will be the former… and he will have it done February 6^th. So keep him in your prayers. Once he’s healed, Cynthia will go in to have her periodic a-fib resolved.

Tuesday we left at 6am to drive to the LA temple. The Newport Beach temple was closed. I am surprised at how many temples are closed either for cleaning or renovation…or complete reconstruction. The 1 hour drive took two in traffic and we missed our planned session. So we did initiatories and then went to the next session. In the LA temple they have rooms depicting parts of the plan of salvation. It was interesting to move between the rooms.

In the evening we fixed dinner and Cynthia and Jim joined us for dinner. Mom bought a monstrous apple pie to take for dessert to C & J on Monday night. We continued to devour it on Tuesday for dessert… with a little ice cream to help it slide down. Afterwards we watched the State of the Union address of President Trump. It’s been a long time since I watched one start to finish. I thought he did a pretty good job. It was nice to see it myself and not just hear the sound bites filtered by those who loved it or hated it.

Wednesday we got up early to see the Blood Moon.  It was a blue moon (since it was the second full moon of the month.  It was a bright moon, since the orbit was closer to the earth.  And it was a lunar eclipse because the earth's shadow covered the moon completely at 5:30 am.  Even mom came out and took a look and then... wisely... went back to bed.

Wed I was bummed. I was about to review the 10 email series as I had revised it all. Then… I could NOT find the revisions I’d done for the third letter series. Oh! I was so bummed. But rather than screaming… which I have found to be less effective… I started revising it again. But mid-afternoon, I’d finished revising that and reviewing all the letters. As I was putting it all together for Tom to proof-read… I found the missing revision. Sigh… again. I blended the best of both and gave it to Tom to read.

I took a break at 9:30 and went off for a chat with Cynthia. We try to get away for a just-us-two chat at least once. This time I helped her get a new email and PayPal account so she could start listing some of her extra stuff on eBay. Sally also came down to visit with Mom and work on her paperwork. Tom and Mom left to go mattress shopping as Sally and I worked on our stuff.

We ate leftovers. Sally had volunteered to drive us to Union Station in LA, so we didn’t need to catch a train until 10pm (instead of 5:50) Thus, we had a chance to spend more time with Mom. Once traffic cleared, Sally drove us north and dropped us off.

It was nice to get on board the train and into bed at a more reasonable hour. However, the rocking back and forth still took some getting used to. We found that limited internet actually meant NO internet. When we were stopped close to stations, we could sometimes grab a little. So Tom finished proof-reading my emails and at a station, I had a short window and sent them off! Wahoo! I hope they don’t need extensive revisions.

Then what to do? Sally had given me some books to read and Tom brought a fat one. So mostly we read for the next few days… with a few games of Five Crowns thrown in. Of course meals took a bite out of our day.

Crossing the Rio Grande from New Mexico into Texas

We had community seating, so again, we got to meet some interesting people. And there was plenty of time for conversation. Most meals took a good 45 minutes from sit-down to food on the table. And if we had a salad course, then dinner, then dessert, it was over a leisurely time. So when meals take up six hours… that’s a chunk out of the day. And when the train would stop for more than 5 minutes, we’d get out and walk along the train station.

We had a few delays along the way. Got behind a slow freight train… and I don’t know what all else. But we ended up coming into Little Rock at a disgusting 1:30am instead of a somewhat more reasonable 11:30 pm. However our trusty son Andy was there to pick us up and schlep us back to his house, where we actually slept in until 7am!

Katie and Aaron had a swim meet. Andy was helping to time the events. So we went along to see them swim. They asked Tom to be a lane timer as well and he graciously agreed. I sat on the sidelines and cheered. Kera, Grandpa McClellan, and the little girls came later to cheer and I left early with them. Katie had told Tom to stand back from the edge during turns and finishes. But he wanted to be close to see the touches and so came home with soggy shoes and pants from the splashing. Katie and Aaron both shaved time off their events. They are great swimmers… and great kids.

We left early afternoon and drove home, stopping to pick up milk, bread and fruit on the way. It’s good to be home. We unpacked and opened three weeks’ worth of mail. I also called CenturyLink to see why my DSL light was red. After an hour on the phone and trying to work through different fixes—including a hard reset— I have a red internet light and the advice that I probably need a new modem. L

Sunday was fast Sunday. We had good meetings. After Sacrament, we went to a self-reliance devotional. This introduced the self-reliance program to most of the remainder of the ward members—including youth. I sat at the table with 6 teen-aged boys and it was an interesting combination of attentiveness and light-saber pen antics. I love the message that the Lord loves us. He is aware of our situation (financial, physical, spiritual, all of it.) He wants to help us become better. When we turn to him with our problems and ponder, he will show us how to improve.

Tomorrow we start on the toboggan ride toward our departure date. I expect there will be bumps, turns, and speeding up toward the finish line.

Disneyland in Pictures

Fun time at Disneyland.

 Checking for when we can get our next fastpasses.

 This is the ponytail I followed all around the park.  In crowds, that was what I looked for.  Good thing Savannah never took it down... I'd have been totally lost!

 Fun with tinkerbell!

 We toured Mickey's House and saw the big cheese himself.

 Nighttime was darker than I'd like, but lovely!

Disneyland!

We had a lovely time at Disneyland with Adam, Savannah, the kids and the other set of grandparents. Savannah was our guide and organizer and we kept together most all the time. We went on several rides more than once because they were fun. 

I wasn't a fan of the rollercoaster rides, so I sat out with Miley.  One time we went on the steamboat and enjoyed a trip around the lagoon while others rode. Miley was fascinated.  Another time while Miley slept, Tom watched her and Piper and I went on bumper cars and on the Hungry Caterpillar  ride through all the partly eaten apples, watermelon and such.

King Arthur's merry-go-round and tinkerbell and Snow White.

Sleepy Miley

 It's a Bug's Life

 Christmas Themed It's a Small World

I think my favorite rides were Soarin, the Matterhorn, and cars. But really the most fun was watching the kids have a good time.

It was a sad parting on Tuesday evening.  It will be a long time before we see them again. We actually woke up Wednesday morning thinking about going back to Disney to be with them on their final day... but decided that would just prolong the sadness for another few hours... and then we'd have to be sad again. This is the hard part about going on a mission.

Wednesday we went back to picking up the pieces of life.  Working on my writing projects to finish, trying to learn the language.  Tom and I went clothing shopping. We checked out the sales at Macy's, Ross Dress for Less, a shoe store, Nordstom's Rack. I was mostly looking for comfortable dressey shoes.  Didn't find them. Did find a cool summer blouse.  And we lunched at In n' Out burger to get our fix there.  We also found the Sees candy store and bought some crispy mints. Mmmm.

Mom's old upstairs neighbor's husband passed away and his funeral was held on Thursday.  It was up near Griffith park in the Mt. Sinai Cemetery.  He was Jewish and it was interesting to see the Jewish ceremony.  Very respectful with good memories shared... and keeping him alive in your heart. But not much about living after death. However, they place a little soil from Jerusalem beneath the head of the deceased, so he can feel close to his homeland. And when people come to visit the grave site, the place a stone on the grave-- for permanence-- or a lasting memory. And these stones typically come from Jerusalem.  How important this land is to them!

It was an hour plus drive each way and we stopped to visit Sally on the way home and eat a 3pm lunch.  So it took most of the day.

Thursday night Tom started feeling crummy-- sore throat... then sneezles... then runny nose and cough.  He used lots of oregano, slept a lot, and felt much improved by Sunday.  While he slept, I got a lot accomplished on my writing. Sally came down on Friday and we had a nice visit as she helped Mom.

Saturday, I started with a sore throat.  I've been babying myself and took a long Sunday nap. Actually we all did.  Tom and I went to a 9 am Regional conference.  It spoke a lot about prayer, scripture reading and service.  We were encouraged to find and keep joy in our lives through gratitude and service.

After our conference we went to pick Mom up from Church... since Cynthia and Jim have also been under the weather. She had a congregational meeting and lunch. I stayed with her for that... Tom went home to study and rest.  We had a Choirfest we'd planned to attend at 2, but instead we all took naps for a few hours!

For dinner we had worst with sauerkraut, red cabbage, and potatoes.  Mmm good!

On the Train

Sorry it's been two weeks!

The week of January 8-14:
Once again, my goal was to get some of my writing projects completed.  Once again... that didn't happen.  I did get Chad's project done as far as I could and sent that off to be reviewed. And I finally got feedback from my Eagle project.  So they are moving forward.

Monday I went in and ordered a new set of glasses.  Argh... they cost an arm and a leg.  Tuesday, we met with our friend, John for Book of Mormon studies. 

We keep working on mission things. We got the shuttle ordered from the airport the the MTC. We met with our language tutor to create a study plan. It was very helpful.  We are studying and learning poly-poly... or slowly, slowly in Swahili.

Thursday, Tom got the stitches out on the incision on his back.  The stitches had started to cause an infection.  Unfortunately, the infection seems to have remained in one center spot. The rest is healing nicely, but this spot has drainage... and there will be a little bigger scar where the incision came apart and drained for a bit.

We decided to pay of one of the mortgages before we left on our mission. Bitcoin had been doing well for us, so we cashed some in. The amount to cash in grows when you add 10% for tithing and 18.5% for Uncle Sam and state taxes.  But it feels good to know that the loan is paid off and regardless of how Bitcoin does in the future... we are ahead that much.

Saturday we spent getting ready to leave.  We packed up the non-working clocks to take up for when Steve gets home from his mission and has a chance to work on fixing them.

We've been having very frigid weather!  Sunday morning we woke up to a dusting of snow.  We went to church.... and then the snow started falling in earnest. Many of the churches canceled services. We held Sacrament... and had about 75% of the normal attendance.  Then canceled the rest of the meetings.  Tom had planned a self-reliance meeting for the last hours of church.. So that needed to be postponed.

We came home, changed, and headed to Andy's house.  We were concerned about traveling small roads in snowy weather.  But as we went further south, the snow became lighter and lighter until it was non-existent.  However, the weather was still a chilly 27 degrees in the higher elevations.

We arrived at Andy's in good time and had a lovely visit with his family and with Miranda's family as they were visiting there as well.  It was too short of a visit.  About 11pm, after a rousing game of Five Crowns, we had them drive us to the train station in Little Rock. 

We didn't need to board the train until 3pm, but we had never been to the train station, and we didn't want them to have to stay us as late as we did.

It made for a long... mostly sleepless... night.  Once we boarded the train, we were probably in bed by 3:30 ish.  But the train rocks back and forth.  So when you lie on your back, you feel secure in bed.  But when you lie on your side, the tendency is to tense up to prevent yourself from rocking back and forth as the train moves.  Hard to sleep that way.  It always takes a night or so to learn to relax and rock with the train.

So Monday the 15th, we were kind of dead.  Mostly we read and slept.  They served good food on the train and since we had the sleepette, it was included in the price. On Tuesday I spent some time working on my copywriting, studying the language and playing a few games of Five Crowns.  When you play with two... the game goes faster and the score is lower.  Or at least, that's how it worked for us.

Stop in San Antonio?


Seeing JW Bush's wall along the border

One of the fun things about the train is that we sit with another couple at meal times. So we got a chance to meet people of different ages and interests as we traveled.  There are a lot of train riding enthusiasts-- those who don't like flying. Those who travel by train for environmental reasons.  Those who just love train travel.  It was a nice group of people.

Wednesday we got off the train at Union Station a little after 5:30. We rested in the station for a bit and caught the 7:30 train to Irvine.  Cynthia and Jim kindly picked ups up from the station and we went out for a chatty breakfast.

Thursday I had a long conversation with my Eagle editor going over all the suggestions and recommendations he made.  I hadn't expected it to take that long-- it was nearly two hours.  I think I have a good idea of what needs improvement.  Sally came down to visit with mom and help her and so we had a nice chance to visit with her.  Mom, Sally, Tom and I went shopping at Costco in preparation for Sunday's dinner with Adam and family.

Friday I worked for a while on my writing projects.  I can't remember what we did with the rest of our time.

Saturday we got up at the crack of dawn... no before that... to head to Disneyland.  We met Adam and family and his in-laws at 6:30 and got to Disneyland a little after 7. We were first in line at the ticket booth and easily changed the military vouchers into tickets.  We were first in line for the first ride in the California section.

Savannah had everything very well organized.  We went from ride to ride. She got fast-passes on the phone and plugged us all in. On rides that the little ones were too small to go on, someone sat out, and then they... and a few others, got a chance to go again.  We snacked during the day.  Then in the evening, we purchased dinner with a fast-pass ticket for front area seating for the Fantasmic Celebration.

Again, we got there pretty early so we could get a good seat, and then waited for an hour.  Good seating meant right next to the lagoon... but on the cobblestone path.  So we sat on the cement walkway for the performance.  The evening was chilly and the seating cool.  The mist from the show also chilled.  But the show was very impressive.  Great waterworks.  They projected pictures into the mist created by the fountains. Boats cruised by with characters from Disney movies, and a ghost ship from Pirates of the Caribbean had Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth fighting and sparring with the bad guys on the upper rigging of the ship.  Malificent's dragon appeared on the island and spewed fire into the lagoon. It ended with lovely fireworks. All in all, it was very entertaining. We left the park about 10:30 and dragged our tired feet home.

The miracle was that with a little ortho-ease, our bodies didn't complain about the nearly 10 miles we walked that day.  Equally amazing was how good the grand kids were. No arguing, complaining, bickering or anything.  They were excited to go on rides, willing to try anything, and just happy to be there.  Really impressive kids.

Sunday we had good talks and lessons in church. Relief Society talked about being one and not getting hung up on differences. There were insightful comments on imagining how you'd treat a person if you believed they would die tomorrow... or if you were just meeting them for the first time.  In both cases it is probably more kindly that you might treat those you know well.

Adam and family and in-laws came to church with us, then over to Mom's for lunch. Cynthia and Jim joined us for a little while. Then we went up to Sally's so they could load Uncle Otto's desk into the in-law's van. Success!  It fit.  We celebrated by having dinner at Sally's.  It was fun to see the grand kids having a good time there.  Randy (in-law) took pictures of the family and the 4 generations.  Then we drove home and conked out.  More Disney tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

We have been having frigid weather here.  Every time it stays below freezing for several days, Tom wants to test the pond.  Here he is... proving the pond has thick enough ice to walk on.  This time, I wasn't worried as it's been about 9-15 degrees at night and in the 20's during the day for the past 5 or so days.

I've been feeling sorry for the cats.  I went in search of a large styrofoam ice chest that could be converted.  I found a medium sized one... waste of money. Too small.  So I talked Tom into buying a 4'x8' sheet of foamboard and creating a cat house with me. We just taped the sides together with duct tape and made a round hole in the front and in the top, so there would be two exits.  This one is big enough for two cats.

The were unimpressed.  I washed the towels that served as cushions and put them out, hot from the dryer, then put Athena inside.  She peeked out the top opening, but stayed put.  Now even Zane will go inside.  Today it looks like both tried to make a quick exit.  The front panel was a bit off it's duct taped hinge.  We were planning on eventually encasing it in wood.  Maybe that needs to come sooner rather than later. Anyhow, I'm glad they have someplace warmer than the barn.

This week has been a frenzy of mission preparation. It seems we've had long lists every day. Get power of attorney, put rental loans on automatic payment, call missionary health department about flu shots... yes we really must have them... go get shots. Get tax prep done so it can be turned in early and we can sign before we leave the country, arrange travel, get set up with a language tutor, arrange travel.

The original flight out left on Monday, 19 March and had us arriving on Tuesday.  What? Waste two whole days since the MTC was finished Friday late afternoon? However, the mission president wouldn't be there to greet us over the weekend since he had a district conference.  So that got me thinking about possibilities...

Zurich was kind of on the way... which wasn't too far from Bern... and this might be our only chance to see Sue and Steve for a while... and we needed a chiming clock... and it might give is a day or so to get used to the time change... Tom looked at me like I was crazy (don't know why, he should be used to it!).

I called travel. They said we could go any way we wanted-- if WE made the flight arrangements. They would reimburse us for what it would cost them to fly us direct.  So for about $500 more, we get to spend a day and a half with Sue and Steve! We'll fly from Zurich to Zagreb, Croatia  Monday night... and still get there a day ahead of the original plan.  It was a little hectic as we checked flights, baggage allowance (we'll have to pay some extra for our extra luggage), checked with the mission president to see if our arrival time was okay, and finally buy the tickets.

After a two week break, we resumed our Tuesday evening religious discussions with John. He is such a nice guy and we have a lot of common ground.  I just feel so sad that he has not learned to access the Holy Spirit and all the guidance and help available that way.

Wednesday we had the sister missionaries over for dinner with another new convert.  I made Taco Soup and it was tasty. Later we went in to get a temple recommend interview with the bishop's counselor. While our recommends had a half year to go, they asked missionaries to go out with new recommends.

We need a state wide criminal background check and then it has to have an apostille from the Secretary of State of Arkansas.  And it can't be more than 9 weeks from our arrival date.  This is for the visa into Bosnia. So the request for the background check needs to be notarized, sent off, returned, then sent to the Secretary of State with the appropriate form and money. I will say that in my several calls to Little Rock, the civil servants there were both civil and helpful.  They walked me through the website to download the correct forms and explained turn-around time frames. I like my state!

Friday we spent the morning getting things notarized, getting flu and Tetanus shots, paying bills, and getting tax stuff. We met up with some friends for lunch and had a delightful time.

I have been trying to spend several hours a day on finishing up my writing projects... without the necessary feedback from the stakeholders. They keep saying it's coming... We've also been spending time practicing the language. I'm afraid we only remember a few words, but we keep trying.  I figure if my tongue and mouth are sore, I'm practicing enough.  It's the Tsv's and the gzuh sounds.  My tongue isn't used to running these letters together.

Saturday we went to the temple on the van with 8 other people. As usual, it was nice to chat up and back and good to be in the temple.  I can't attest to the fact that I was awake 100% of the time.  While it's been exceptionally dry and we desperately need rain, the good news is that it made for smooth driving up and back-- no ice, no snow.

Today was a good Fast and Testimony meeting. We have good people. We also started the new Relief Society curriculum with a Relief Society Council.  I like sitting in a circle where all can participate.