More Blessings

Monday Andy's family and Miranda's family and Tom and I went canoeing.  Nathan stayed home because he wasn't feeling well.  We debated where to canoe. I opted for close and easy... but a little more expensive.  We drove to Patrick's Landing and dropped off canoes and most people.  Then Tom and Andy drove to Dawt Mill and parked the car and truck with canoe trailer.  They -- the Dawt Mill employee-- took Tom and Andy back to Patrick's Landing and dropped them off.

So we had a chance to play in the water before canoeing.... and when we got to Dawt Mill, we could load the canoes and leave.  I wasn't sure how Baby Alex would fare, but he did fine. Everyone had a good time.  The kids traded riding in canoes.  Sometimes with Miranda and I.  Sometimes with Tom, Kera, or Andy.

We were only on the river about 1.5 hours plus maybe a half hour more at each end.  I got more sunburned and more bug-bitten than I'd gotten on the whole pioneer trek.  And my right canoe paddling arm was incredibly sore and painful.  Wow! If my legs had hurt like that on the trek the song would have gone: "Pioneer children cried as they walked and walked and walked..."   I put bunches of oils on it and it mitigated the pain somewhat.  It made me realize how blessed I was.  I'd never walked more than 1.6 miles in a day.  And I went nearly 20 in three days with almost no muscle pain.

Tuesday Miranda and Andy and families went to the lake.  The kids had a great time.   I stayed home and worked.  We celebrated Tom's birthday with cherry chocolate cake and Jonathan's enchiladas.

Either Tuesday or Wednesday Tom took some of the kids and put them to work.  They demolished the brick freestanding wood stove backing and removed some of the drop ceiling in kitchen and laundry room at the 1603 house.

Wednesday Kera left to go to visit her dad.  Andy and family stayed part of the day, then left to go and visit Chandra's mom... and then on to Jonathan's.  We did some quick cleaning and bed changing.  In the evening, Miranda and Dan's friends the Merrills arrived with their 4 children aged 9-18 months. We had happy pandemonium once again.  The Merrill girls were very helpful with the chickens.  They mostly had a great time playing with toys together.  The adults enjoyed card games each night.... except Tom and I.  We were pretty tired and went to bed early.

Thursday Tom and I went out to the 1603 house.  Tom replaced the dropped ceiling in the laundry room.  It looked better than what was underneath.  I took out the dropped ceiling in the bathroom and stripped the wall paper there.  I also removed some of the carpet tack strip from the family room. Ray and his handyman had been in earlier and re-did the ducting for the HVAC.  They had been stretched too tightly and improperly attached.  There were 4 ducts at the main HVAC unit that had come off.  Some of the insulation was stripped from some of the runs leaving just plastic tubing.  And 5 were disconnected from vents at the floor.  No wonder they had high heating bills!

They also put in a beam to support the sagging floor.  The floor didn't appreciate it.  They got about 2/3rds of the sag out.  Then the old floor joists just bit into the support beam.  Still, the floor won't sag any more.

In the evening, Tom Merrill made dinner-- baked fish and wild rice-- which was delicious. Friday they went thrift shopping and to the beach.  Tom worked at the house.

Saturday Tom mowed lawns.  It was a very hot day.  And it was our annual pioneer day picnic.  The picnic was in the afternoon.  We were blessed with shade, a breeze and some overcast sky.  They had a family pioneer trek game, tug of war, arm wrestling, sack races, and a nail pounding competition.  They also had good food.  It was so fun to see Alex eat the watermelon.  He put his whole body into it.

Sunday the Merrills left about 8:20 and Miranda and Dan were gone by 8:30.  Sigh.  The house is quiet again.  We had the mission president and his wife come and speak to us.  Excellent talks. When we know what we know, keeping quiet is a sin.  We need to share with others--- and give them the freedom to accept or not.

Pioneer Trek

The first part of the week was spent in Trek preparations.  I also worked to get some recordings done for an Elance job. Nathan came up from Mississippi to join us when Tom went to pick up the handcarts. Then we started the Trek.

When I was first asked to go on the stake youth Pioneer Trek, I wasn’t all that excited about going.  I’m a wimp.  It was out of my comfort zone.  I knew the pioneers had a hard time crossing the plains with wagons and handcarts.  I didn’t want to push a handcart for a pioneer trek reenactment.

But as I thought about it, I thought, what would I do if the Lord asked me to?  Would I walk to Zion? I would.  I hope I would choose to do whatever the Lord asked—as did Nephi. (Nephi 3:7)

So I started preparing and as I was doing conditioning, I hurt my Achilles tendon.  It was so sore I could only hobble along, and my conditioning pretty much came to a halt.  At stake conference, I asked Pres. Roylance if it would just hurt, or if I’d damage my foot if I went on the trek with it hurting.  He said I could damage it.  Pres Jones had hurt his Achilles tendon early and kept repeating, “Ohh, they take a long time to heal.”

So I decided if I were to go, it would take a miracle. I would be faithful and do everything I could to heal it, and if the Lord wanted me to go, he’d make it better.

He did make it better.  Each day it improved. I was able to start walking again, and get almost up to speed before the trek. But that wasn’t the only miracle.

This is our pioneer "family."

The stake organized us into “families.”  We were Ma and Pa to 8 youth and one handcart.  We had to put all our belongings onto the cart—tents, sleeping bags, and one 5 gallon bucket of belongings for each person.  We also had cooking utensils and Dutch ovens.  We met Thursday morning about 8am.  Traveled for three days and finished Saturday about 1:30.

2. As the leaders checked out the trek site ahead of time, they said the copperheads, ticks, and chiggers were the worst they’d ever seen. I’m allergic to tick and chigger bites.  They swell and last for weeks.  I prayed and asked the Lord to bless me not to get any ticks and chigger bites.  I felt peaceful about them.  On the trek we traveled in all the places they love to stay. Amazingly, I got NO tick or chigger bites.  This was a miracle to me.  It was a sign that God knew me, loved me, answered my prayers, and blessed me with a tender mercy.  

3. The guys did find one large snake—a poisonous Copperhead.  The young men marched over it.  And no one was hurt! Another miracle.

4.  July is supposed to be beastly hot.  It’s always roasting.  But this year, right at the time we had the trek, the weather mitigated.  This polar vortex came south and cooled things down. I was so grateful.  The trek was grueling.  It was hard work, even in milder weather.  I’m so grateful the Lord was kind to us with gentle weather.  It was cool and overcast.  It was a miracle and an answer to prayers.

5.  But along with the cooler weather, they forecasted rain.  The morning we left, they said it should rain from 5pm Thursday to noon on Friday.  I wondered how we’d cook dinner, meet with our families and do all we needed to do in the rain.  But the rain held off all evening.  We cooked, had a devotional and heard pioneer stories, and were in our tents before the rain started falling.

It rained all night.  Some tents flooded.  Sleeping bags got soaked.  Bishop woke up in a puddle as did all the girls in our family.   But in the morning—just when it was time to get up—the rain stopped.  It truly was a gift from God.  It was a miracle.  My personal miracle was that I stayed dry!

6. We traveled on gravel roads up and down.  We took the carts across creeks and then actually down a creek.  We traveled small paths—rocky and steep.  And places that were almost no path at all.  Very little of it was level.  I think we did 7-8 miles the first day, 6-7 the second day and 5 the third day.  It felt like 100 each day.  But everyone worked hard and we did it!  I walked the whole way and my Achilles tendon never bothered me.  Other people had their own foot, muscle, toe or leg problems and they also were strengthened.  It was miraculous.

7. We had good stuff, like wild blackberries on the sides of the trail, but also briars, thorns, tree branches and poison ivy.   We had small trees growing in our path and rocks and boulders, too. One lunch, we stopped to eat in a clearing that was filled with poison ivy.  The miracle was I didn’t get a poison ivy rash none of our family did either.  I think only one girl got poison ivy.  Another miracle.

8.  Our family had 3 boys and 5 girls from 4 different wards.  They just came together and pitched in.  These were the most fantastic youth!  All of them on the trek were amazing.  I never heard any complaints.  Ever.  They were obedient in everything—except going slow.  In their enthusiasm, it was hard to slow them down.

One of the “sons” on our handcart, Nicholas, just pushed and pushed!  He was always working. They would go faster sometimes than I could walk.  I came across Nicholas, sitting beside the road after a long uphill climb.  “Are you okay?” I asked.  “I’m just a little light headed, but I’m fine.” Nicholas said.  Before I could do anything, he had a friend by his side, putting his arm around him to help him walk and giving him some water.

Madeline, one of our “daughters,” pulled up a tough hill.  At the break she lay flat in the grass.  “I think I sprained my shoulder,” she said.  A few minutes later, I asked how she was doing.  “I’m fine,” she said.

Hannah, another daughter, was scrappy. She’d go beside the cart and pull the handcart wheel over the rocks or help support the wheel as it went off a small cliff.  This meant she was often in the bushes, the brambles the uneven ground—and she twisted her ankle (which was weak from earlier injuries)—probably more than once.  But when I asked how she was, she said, “I’m fine.”

I think the Lord blessed us and healed us.  I think he took our faith and devotion and blessed us to be able to do these hard things.  We had miracles in healings as promised in Mosiah 2:41.

8. All the youth on the trek jumped in and worked.  They pulled and pushed the handcarts over really hard terrain.  They all pitched in. And they were kind to each other. Sure, we had good natured teasing, but I didn’t hear one criticism. No critical remarks, belittling, or unkindness.  None.  Zero.

I can’t imagine you could get a group of adults together for 3 days and not hear any unkind remarks or see evidence of selfishness.   This was a miracle.

9.  They asked us Ma’s and Pa’s not to push the carts. And we did very little.  The youth really made it happen.  There was a time on the second day where the men went off to the Mormon Battalion, and the women were left to push the carts.  We went down a very narrow, rocky, steep trail.  I’d look back and think, I’m sure glad we’re not going up this, it looks impossible!  The girls used great teamwork and communicated, and really worked together.

Then, as we turned the corner and joined another road, our trail boss said we had a half mile straight up.  It was incredibly steep.  I think our girls were game, but it would have been really, really, really hard.  Fortunately the boys returned and helped out.  But I think more than the boys were there on that eternally steep climb.

They youth said they felt their ancestor pioneers helping out.  They felt strength beyond their own allowing them to finish that climb. They said it was a miracle to get up that hill.

10. They were so exhausted some just lay down and fell asleep. They were not even enthusiastic about the dance that night.  My family just wanted to go to bed.  But after dinner, they were ready to go.  They arm wrestled and leg wrestled and danced and stayed up late talking in their tents.

I had wondered how the pioneers had the energy to dance after a hard day’s walk.  I’m convinced it’s the renewing energy and strength from Heavenly Father.  It’s what he bestows on the obedient.

Our trek was a reenactment of the early pioneers trek to Zion.  In Moses 7:18 it says: And the Lord called his people ZION, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

As I was thinking about this talk, I realized on our way to Zion, we became Zion.  We were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in righteousness.  It was exciting to realize we can become a Zion people.  And if we can do it for 3 days…. We can do it for more days.

I know that when we trust in the Lord, submit our will to his. when we stretch and do hard things—things the Lord asks us to do--  We are blessed with miracles.

Today we had a talk on pioneers and the speaker said it’s not the genetic connection—how we are physically related to early Mormon pioneers that matters.  It’s the spiritual connection.  When we live as they lived—with sacrifice and obedience—we are spiritual descendants of the early Mormon Pioneers.  And that’s what’s most important. 

Blog, Blog, Blah

It's time for a weekly update and frankly nothing exciting seems to be going on.  Maybe that's because the children and grandchildren all left and it's just the two of us again.

Tuesday we decided to go to Silver Dollar City.  We hadn't been for a while and if you go to 4 of their celebrations you get a special Christmas ornament at Christmas time. This was their Red, White and Blue Summer Celebration. This event is scheduled for several weeks, much longer than their previous "Kid Fest," but it was fun.  We saw a magician-- complete with floating body and cutting people in half.  Very fascinating!  Then we saw a show where Olympic contestants and hopefuls demonstrated their abilities. A lot of it was done on trampolines and quite impressive.  This group has their training camp in Park City, UT.

We completed the day with a trip to the mall for  tools, clothes, and Harry and David.  Then we stopped at Andy's Frozen Custard for dinner (ice cream) and Aldis for grocery shopping.  A nice day.

We needed to reclaim the garden. We'd kind of neglected it when we had busy family here.  So Tom and I spend several hours most days-- not necessarily at the same time-- pulling weeds.  It now looks like a garden again.  The cucumbers are blooming.  The sunflowers are taller than I am.  I planted some corn.  And we pulled all the onions.  Some of the onions are mushy.  Perhaps we had too much water.  It was a wet June.

Tom and I had waged a battle against the worms on the broccoli and brusselsprouts. We went out and picked morning and evening.  Nothing seemed to stop the little critters.  We read up on solutions and tried some of them.  Finally we succumbed to Seven-- a pesticide.  Bingo!  No worms.  Oh the joy!  The worms stayed away for about a month.  Yesterday I discovered they were back to munching.  No more fooling around.  I dusted with Seven again.

I also saw that the brusselsprouts were ripe on the bottom of the plants.  So now we have a plethora of brussel sprouts to eat.  And we are still enjoying fresh broccoli.

Rebecca's tenant moved out and Tom has been busy painting and fixing at her house. He painted the living room walls and trim and it gussied it up a bit.  She had odd painting done in the kitchen-- Kind of two tone.  It hid a multitude of dirt and blemishes, but none of the patching exactly matched.  So we bought some paint and it looks fresh and more modern now.

Tom's been mowing properties. Some days he comes home pretty tuckered out.  We finally got the last of our houses rented.  Then we learned the lower Midway Duplex tenant will be moving out.  Bummer.  And soon we'll close on a new house to renovate.  What was I thinking?

Tom and I are going to be Ma and Pa on a pioneer trek. As I was doing interval training, I hurt my Achilles tendon. I've been oiling it and babying it, but it was still mighty painful last weekend.  I was afraid I might not be able to go on the trek.  But I decided to act in faith and keep on keeping on.  This  week it's been much better-- my own private miracle.  Saturday I mended and altered a pioneer dress to wear. I put pockets into an apron I'd been given.  I still need to put elastic into the waistbands of some pantaloons and a skirt. I went to the thrift store and bought a blouse to go with the skirt. And I think I'll need to make another apron.

We've been collecting tarps and dutch ovens, gloves, bug spray, and other essentials for the trek.  Thus far this summer we've really had quite pleasant weather. It has not been beastly hot and muggy.  Some days it's been a little muggy.  But mornings have been quite pleasant.  I hope this kind of weather will continue into the trek week.

Stake Conference

This was the last week we’d have Rebecca and family for a while and there was lots going on.

Monday we drove to Springfield to get Tom’s running shoes. Since we were so close to ½ of ½ Rebecca was going to drop me off and go over to the shoe store with Tom.  But the store was going through remodeling and only half the store was open.  Dang.

I didn’t think I could spend 1-2 hours there, so I made them wait while I shopped.  Rebecca and kids came in to shop as well. Tom stayed in the car to read.  Then at the shoe store, the kids wanted to stay in the car, so I sat there and read while Rebecca and Tom went in. He found great running shoes.

We went to lunch at our favorite Mexican place only to discover it had closed down.  So we went to Panera.  Might have gone to Andy’s frozen Custard for lunch… but it was raining and they only had outside seating. Panera was no doubt, more nutritious.

Tuesday I lined us Rebecca to talk to our whole life insurance agent to see if that was something she might want to do.  I also talked to title companies about insurance for the house we are buying.  And finally connected with Samsonite… who again sent out an incorrect bag… although they have been very nice about the whole thing.

It’s been a bit fragmented to work for some reason.  But I got a little done. Fortunately, I don’t have a lot of work lined up. And next week, I should do better.

Thursday Rebecca and crew went to see the new How to Tame your Dragon movie in the afternoon, and Tom and I went to see Malificent I the evening.  I thought it was enjoyable.

Stake Conference was Saturday and Sunday. President Jones wanted to feed all the people who came to priesthood leadership meeting from 4-6.  We figured about 175 people to feed between 6 and 7 pm.  He wanted a sit-down meal for about 30—bishops and wives and special guests.

Feeding the masses is definitely not my specialty.  But we divided things up—one counselor made cookies, another counselor, Michele, made salad and lined up hostesses to help serve and clean up, and I agreed to do potato soup. My secretary was tasked with decorations and paper goods.

 I got the recipe and multiplied to about 10 gallons.  I bought all the ingredients on Thursday.  Friday five of us gathered at church for a potato peeling party.  Wow!  Great women.  They worked fast and got 40 pounds of potatoes peeled and cut up.

I was at the Cuisinart chopping onions and celery, then sautéing them on the stove and cooking the potatoes.  I did it in one gallon batches, because otherwise I wasn’t sure how to keep the recipe straight.  Got 5 batches done.  But it was SO hot when I put it into the gallon storage bags, I was afraid to do more.  And the ladies were done with their part.

So I came home and cooked two pans of potato soup on the stove, put them into bowls to cool, and then bagged them.  It was a bit more relaxing at home.

I took a break to get a raindrop/massage.  Rebecca got one as well.  Then Tom left to go get Joshua back from Scout camp so Rebecca could leave earlier on Saturday.  She spent the day packing and withdrawing her “footprint” from the house.

Saturday they got up and left about 9:30.  Tom and I planned on leaving for West Plains by 10 but it was closer to 10:30 before we were packed and off.  I had to pack the food and we planned on spending the night.  We had a meeting at noon for the pioneer trek planning.  They fed us lunch.  At 2, when that was over, Tom had a bishop’s training meeting he was in charge of.

I headed for the kitchen and began putting the soup together.   Michele had lined up 10 crock pots.  I think 8 were there by 2.  So we began heating the potato mix plus the milk.  Most all of it got hot in time.  We added the cheese and waited.  We had bread, cookies, and some biscuits.  And water pitchers and cups.

There was a total possibility of about 250 people—if you added up all the callings that could come.  Then family history people were invited.  Not just the leaders… that would be 7 but all their helpers.  Number: unknown.  And the Sunday school presidency was invited.  And there were others hanging around that might want to eat.  I had no idea if we’d run out or have tons left over.

The hostesses were to help in both the sit-down area for bishops/stake Presidency/special guests/wives area and the general priesthood leadership area of food serving.  One sister really wanted to wear a hat.  It was important to show her love and encouragement, so Michele agreed to wear a hat, too. 

 The hat ladies!

Her creative son made hats for Michele, my secretary, and Michele’s 2 daughters. One was complete with fake peacock and real peacock tail. 

The hat lady brought in an extra marvelously extravagantly decorated hat.  The hat group served the sit-down group and it truly was elegant.  Tanya, the secretary, did a fabulous job of decorating and making it look nice!  Even with just 45 minutes between groups meeting in the room.

This wonderfully creative hat lady also made a beautiful apron with the Relief Society logo on the front.  After the dinner she gifted it to me.  I was humbled.  It is delightful and I will cherish it.

I prayed for the loaves and fishes and I planned the food amounts.  Maybe I didn’t do it quite right.  I think we might have had more left over than when we started.  I’d guess we fed over 100.  But we ended up with nearly 7 gallons left over!  How could that be??  We gave some away.  My counselor took some home as I did.

Actually, we stopped clean-up to go to the Saturday Evening session of stake conference.  I had been asked to give the opening prayer.  Um.  I forgot… and walked in at the beginning of the opening song.  Tom reminded me.  As I think on it, it was awesome to give the first opening prayer of the first session of the first stake conference of the newly formed West Plains, Mo stake.

Both the evening and the Sunday sessions were so spiritual in uplifting.  We heard from many different, ordinary people about extraordinary things in their lives.  One had gone inactive as a teen and spoke of his return to activity 30plus years later.  Another spoke of her difficult upbringing, devotion to paganism, and finally coming to the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We heard from both mission president and temple president and our patriarch.

President Jones talked about preparing ourselves for the Savior’s coming.  That means changing our thoughts, desires, and priorities to those the Savior would like us to have.  It means organizing our lives and spending them doing the things of MOST value.

It’s been a great day!

Two Weeks

It’s been two weeks since I last wrote.  That’s because it’s been filled with FAMILY!  WAHOO!

During the week of the 9^th, we got the house offer accepted.   So we went out and did inspections and created estimates and decided it was workable.  The heat and AC work, but the ducting needs to be redone under the house and the crawl space is very limited.  Fortunately, I think we have a skinny guy to do it.  We found the septic tank and it seems to be in good condition.  We will need to blow insulation into the attic, do some flooring, electrical, painting and other small stuff that adds up… and up.

I was all excited about running interval training.  Well—I was excited about the results.  But last week when I ran, I hurt my Achilles tendon. I thought it would get better in a few days.  It has not.  One ankle is much more swollen than the other.  I’ve oiled it and tried to not use it a lot.  I did walk one day and hike a short trail with the grandkids once, but have not been able to go back to running.  I’m a bit concerned about being in shape for the pioneer trek on July 17-19.

Wednesday June 11^th Miranda and crew came up.  It’s so nice to see her little ones.  Camden and Ethan were friendly pretty quickly. Alex took a few days to warm up.  But Kera and all her kids but Nathan arrived on Thursday, as did Rebecca and kids.  Since Kera had watched Alex when Miranda and Dan went on a cruise, Alex was happy to go to her.  And she was great at helping out!

It was pandemonium and mayhem with 13 grandchildren here (all 13 and under)—but in the best way!  They were really good playing with one another. Katie and Marian led the crew down to the fishing hole.  They caught some small fish and crawdads in the pond.  Eventually we inflated the raft and they used that on the pond as well.

Aaron and Callie found a turtle—more likely a terrapin.  They built a shelter for it in their hidden fort in the back woods and retired there to play.

Everyone rode the zip line from Katie to Ethan.  All of Kera’s kids were good about taking turns.  Once I showed Charlotte how to get off at the end, she didn’t want any help there. (Although she still needed help getting on.)

The moms planned for activities for the kids.  They went to the lake, the library, the parks, and on a hike. My friend Beth, who was moving, kindly brought over all kinds of toys that were a big hit.  I didn’t know what all they were, but they were greeted with exclamations of joy.  Lala- loopsy dolls.  20 series early chapter books. A doll high chair and cradle.  Sidewalk chalk.  All were well received.

It seems like, with this crowd, you spend a majority of the time in the kitchen!  We ate well.  Good foods, great deserts.  We cooked a ham the day after they arrived.  We had planned a surprise birthday party for Rebecca—the big four-o.  Then she said she hated surprise parties.  Well, we told her we were celebrating father’s day early and had invited some friends over.  They were her friends.  And about the time we brought out the cake (and the pies), we confessed to it being a surprise for her birthday.   Tom had bought these fantastic invitations and table topping.  They said” Vintage Vixen. Perfectly aged. Bold and leggy with a hint of sass.”

Wednesday Tom went up to spend the day and the night at Girls’ Camp.  Everyone there seemed to have a fun time in spite of the very primitive camping conditions. No air conditioned cabins here.  It was a field and tents.  Water was optional—you had to bucket it from the spigot. Bugs were generous—available throughout the grass.

Kera, kindly sewed two pairs of bloomers for my pioneer trek.  I was so grateful!  That isn’t the kind of thing you can get at Walmart.  And she did such a nice job.  She even sewed a quilt square for a quilt the Relief Society is making for one of our families that moved to Vilonia and lost their house in the tornado.

Friday Kera and Miranda spent doing laundry and packing up.  Oh, it was so sad to have them prepare to leave.  Who would play 5 Crowns at night?

The day before everyone left, Miranda bought some fireworks.  I mostly watched from upstairs to prevent spoiling the fun by yelling, “Watch out!”  “Move back!” and other generally unappreciated advice.  No one got an eye poked out, or burned.  And they all seemed to have a great time.  Some of the sparkly-spraying things were fun to watch.

Saturday our grandchild population dropped from 13 to 5.  Sunday Josh left for scout camp and it now rests at 4.  It was fun while it lasted.  And the volume and clutter is reduced…. And the amount of food necessary to cook.  But oh, it was fun!  Thanks for coming!

 Craft times.

 Reading times

 Monster biting times.

Alex crawls well. Now he's pulling himself up and walking along furniture.  He had a fun time watching Camden who was playing outside.  All was happy until Camden opened the door to come in.  Oops.

Life Goes On

Some weeks it seems like we don’t do a lot.  But I’ll share what I know.

We put in an offer for a house while we were visiting with Mom.  They countered.  We countered and gave our final and best.  We’re still waiting.  On Monday it will be a week.  But the good news is that they are considering it or it wouldn’t take this long.

I read that interval training was as good or better than just walking or running.  So I decided I could do 12 minutes of interval training.  The goal is to run all out until you can’t.  Then walk until you catch your breath and do it again. And again, for 12 minutes.  How hard could that be?

Hard!  It wasn’t the running and walking part.  It was the sore muscles afterward part.  I really felt like an old lady.  Each getting up was accompanied with grunts and groans. Every movement started out a slow hobble.  But in a warped way, the running and exercise feels good.  I hope to eventually move beyond the groan stage.

After the exercising, I’ve moved to the garden to spend an hour or so weeding and picking.  Sometimes it’s picking sugar snap peas or broccoli.  It’s also picking potato bugs and broccoli worms. They be NASTY!  And they are definitely trying to multiply and replenish the earth… at the expense of my vegetables. Any suggestions for natural pesticides?

My jobs have slowed, so I’ve been a bit more focused on marketing.  I’m moving my www.writing4income.com site to be more HVAC newsletter oriented.  It’s a process.  In changing the theme and the words, it’s currently pretty bland.  But I’m working on it.  I also applied for some jobs on Elance and have an interview on Tuesday.  Several of the women from Clayton’s workshop have stayed a bit connected and we had a follow-up phone call on Friday.  It’s nice to be in a group of women who are at or ahead of my writing career.

Tom had been running in preparation for the Gassville In The Park 5K race.  He got two of the young women in the ward to run with him.  We’d had some buffeting rain and storms on Thursday and Friday, but Saturday dawned clear.  They all ran well.  Tom placed first in his age group.  The younger teen placed first in her age group. And the other teen won fastest woman!  So it was a clean sweep.

I wandered around the booths that were getting set up.  I bought some soap and visited with my friend Marian the potter.  Then Tom brought the youth home and they helped him get the fence up along the back property line.  It turns out the fencing we bought is short.  We’ll have to get more.  They unrolled 200 feet of fencing through the brush!  They were hot and sweaty when they finished.

Today we had rain again.  Church was good.  I was asked on Friday evening to teach the Relief Society Class and did.  It was a good class and I think the lesson went well.  Tom had BYD  here with the teenagers, then went home teaching.  We had a chance to call and visit with some of the kids tonight.

At the Mama's Week Two

Monday Mom, Tom and I went to a Memorial Day celebration put on by the American Legion.  It was very nicely done.  Cynthia and Jim are usually in attendance at at least one Memorial event, but since Jim just had foot surgery, they were in recovery mode.

 Tuesday we went to the Queen Mary.  It was fun to see this old historic ship.  We took an audio tour and saw a timeline of her history, the engine room, a mock up of the ship and samples of the different classes of rooms.

I'm glad that newer ships don't have 3rd class....  Even if you're in an inside stateroom, you get to eat at the same restaurants as the suite stayers do.  We had lunch at a nice restaurant there on the ship.  Mom did a great job of "walking the planks"-- around almost all the ship, while I dashed in and saw the Princess Diana  display.

 Wednesday Mom got a new screen door put in.  We went shopping so she could stock up.  She's not driving much with her eyes losing some vision.  We talked to her about golf carts.  Maybe she'll get a GEM car. They are cute and have rigid doors.

I went out to lunch with Cynthia and had a lovely visit.  It's always so nice to chat with sisters!  We came home and packed for our trip.  We did some laundry and the dryer gave it's last gasp.  We had to finish drying clothes outside.  Since the dryer is 15 years old, it may not be worth trying to fix.

We felt bad that we didn't have time to help Mom work through that problem.

Cynthia drove us to the airport and we had an uneventful trip to Tulsa. Miranda met us there.  They had had some storms and had these magnificent cloud formations as we drove to Miranda's.

 The kids were glad to see us. It's nice that they are not shy around us anymore.  Dan and Tom had a project to do.  They wanted to enclose a section of the garage for a food storage area.  Dan had already put in an AC vent to that part of the garage.

The men worked hard all day Friday!  This is just the beginning.  They got sheet rock up and insulated and put the inside sheet rock on too.  Tom mudded the seams.  They'll need to sand and mud some more and then paint and hang the door.

They also changed the attic access from the ladder on the wall to a drop down stairway.

However, Miranda found an Andy's frozen Custard store in the area, so we took a break after dinner and went out for ice cream.  Yum!!

Saturday Dan had to work.  Tom did the second mud coat and we packed up and left.  Had a nice drive home.  A little rain.  A little lunch.  And Alde's stop for some shopping.  But, crazy me, I must have had  the "back to the barn" drive.  I skipped 1/2 if 1/2 and didn't to any clothes shopping.

When we got home, we found the lawn neatly mowed.  The garden mostly weeded, and the vegetables productive-- lettuce and spinach starting to bolt.  Broccoli and sugar snap peas ready for picking. and Sunflower seeds up nicely.  Alas, the beans and the zucchini were no shows.  They will have to be replanted.  And the potato plants were decimated by potato bugs.

Ah well. Tom says no more summer travel when the garden is producing. We'll see.

Saturday evening we went to Super Saturday and learned a little more about our responsibilities as Ma and Pa on the upcoming Pioneer Trek.

Sunday it was nice to be in my home ward with no responsibilities.  I don't think Tom felt that way.  He was busy with meetings from 7:30 until after 3.  A good bishop.