Whirlwind Days

My Kid’s lives are so crazy, mine seems tame by comparison. Jonathan and Kristy have moved into their new home, but are busy trying to get all the fencing up that needs to be done before they leave for the reunion. Deborah is very pregnant and working hard to keep her blood sugar under control. And checking out hospitals along the route to the reunion…. Just in case.

Andy and Kera moved into their new house. Then a few days later, they helped her dad unload all his things into his new house less than a half hour from their home. Kera has been shuffling kids back and forth to Vicksburg for scout camp (Aaron) and Youth Conference (Katie and Nathan.) We just heard that her sister Melinda will be induced with her first baby and Kera promised to come out and be with her in Utah. So Kera will leave on Sunday (July 12^th) to drive out there for we're not sure how long. We hope she will make it to part of the reunion.

In the meantime Miranda and Dan are packing and stressing about their houses closing on Friday the 16^th so they can get to the reunion. However, Miranda promised Kera she’d babysit Kera’s children when Kera went to Utah to help her sister Melinda with the baby. So Miranda and kids are abandoning Dan to finish packing while she goes to Russellville to babysit.

Tom and I had been planning on going to Miranda’s to help pack and maybe fix the roof that one guy said he could fix… but then he couldn’t. But they found someone else to fix it in less than a week before the house is to close. On the good side, the new house owners will let them store stuff in the garage this week before the closing. And on the plus side, Tom and I can pack everything in sight since Miranda and the kids will not need it before the move.

So what has been going on in our less exciting lives?

Monday night we went to our Empty Nester’s group for a pot luck at the park at Lakeview. Tuesday we went to Silver Dollar City.

It was storming that day. Rain was predicted all day. But it was the only day we could go and I didn’t think it would rain THAT hard. I wanted to see the Harlem Globetrotters that were playing there. We did and we wandered through some shops and saw the new show at the saloon which I thought was cuter than some in the past. I was also able to get some large crochet hooks for a project coming up.

We weeded the garden and Wednesday we finally canned 8 pints of pickled beets. I love pickled beets, but found I don’t care all that much for just plain steamed beets.

A friend at church makes these fantastic lace necklaces. I will learn how to make them on Thursday of next week. But I wanted to be able to teach anyone who wanted to learn at the reunion. So I spent time looking at some of the 52 shades of ladder ribbon I can use and narrowing my choice down to half a dozen. They arrived and I’m very excited about sharing the fun with the family at the reunion.

As I’ll be out of town most of the rest of the month, I wanted to get my newsletters done before I left. I did get a draft out. It may be that some of the owners want to put in a special promo or a letter specifically from them, I can get that done. But I didn’t want to have to write and organize 9-11 articles and get them properly formatted as soon as I got home. After all, shortly after I get back from the reunion and visiting Adam I get to go to Deborah’s to help with a new baby.

Thursday afternoon I jumped ship and played with pottery again. I want to do some dishes with Queen Ann’s Lace imprinted in it. And the flowers only bloom for a period of time. This time I cleaned up my crock and then worked on a 9x13 casserole dish. I took the wet piece home to clean up on my own since I won’t be able to go back to Marian’s before we leave.

Friday evening we had a long awaited Bishopric dinner. It had been planned a month or so ago, but then one of the wives was in a car accident and had a broken rib. So we rescheduled it. I felt rushed will a thousand things I can’t even remember now.—running errands, mailing things, blah, blah—but I did get some broccoli salad and cucumber salad made. Everyone else brought dishes and we had a lovely meal and great conversation.

We talked about where to have it next, and the wife of the executive secretary said, “We’ll be out of town then.”  We said, “When will you be out of town?” She said, “Whenever the dinner’s supposed to be at our house.”  She’s such a sweet, timid looking woman, it was funny to hear her joke.

Saturday we had house sitters come to get information on lawn mowing, plant watering and chicken and cat feeding. We had home and visiting teachers come. We had people come to tell us how we could give the cats their shots and not have to pay $40/per cat times 4 at the vet’s. Tom bushhogged the field and mowed the lawn.

Today we had good meetings in church. A lot of it was about being in tune with the spirit. Tom has Bishop’s Youth Discussion going on now with lots of tasty refreshments. The youth seem to enjoy coming over. After that’s over we’ll see about getting ourselves over to Miranda’s.

Trading Sideways

I spend a lot of time looking at the financial markets. I do some investing. I do some options. With options, you hope the market trades sideways so they expire without being called… and you get to keep your money. The market has been going mostly sideways this year.

I feel like my weeks have been going sideways too. I’m not making the advancements I’d like to make but neither are things going poorly. I had hoped to land my “whale” and have an excellent client. Alas, the client has gone on vacation for the next week or so and so nothing will happen. She didn’t have a chance to review my proposal, so I don’t know if it’s likely to be accepted or not. And so we wait. I’ve been reaching out to other clients… but so far, nothing exciting.

In the meantime, I wrote my 9 articles for the HVAC newsletter. It’s due shortly after I get back from the reunion, so I wanted it out of the way, if possible, before I go. My marketer for whom I write the newsletter finally landed his “whale.”  So in the next six months there may be a trickle-down effect. And I’ve been talking to an interesting person about start-up companies.

Tom decided to go to his 50^th high school reunion in October so we will go and visit Mom in the beginning of October. Then I will fly out on the 13^th to go to my copywriting bootcamp. I got the tickets for that flight this week.

I have a new counselor in my Relief Society presidency. She is very nice. We decided to drive to the temple together—the 4 of us: President, 2 counselors, and secretary—on Wednesday. It was a long day as I live the farthest away and had the most dependable car so we took it. But we had lovely visits on the way up and the way back and a nice session in the temple. One of the counselors drove a good percentage of the way home, which was a big help to me.

Thursday I finally went back to Marian’s to do some pottery. We always have such fun and varied conversations. She’s a great teacher. I had made a large crock out of dark clay. Last time I was there I glazed it. When it fired, it got a crack on the bottom. So it could be used for a planter… but not a crock. Alas, the glaze turned out differently on the darker clay, and it’s pretty ugly. When you want to see how clay and glaze will work together, you typically make a small “test tile” that’s an inch or so big. Marian said, “You made a really BIG test tile.”  Remind me next time to start out smaller.

So while we were there, I went back to my favorite white clay and imprinted it with Queen Ann’s lace and created another crock. What I like about Marian is that her pottery is all useful. She was telling me about a garlic and chocolate grater made of concentric rings on a plate. She said people knew about it on the east coast and west… but not here. Apparently the two best enzymes in the garlic for your health blend together when garlic is grated, but not diced. Who knew?

Tom got stung by a wasp on Thursday and he hauled some vines and tree debris on Friday. Between the two of them he has a rash on one arm that's spreading to various places on his body.  It doesn't look like poison ivy... but it's a rash and it's red and spreading.  Poor man.

I don’t remember if I told you about a group of us going and singing to Walt, a member of our ward who was in failing health. That was apparently one of his last good days. He passed away on Tuesday. It was a yours, mine, ours family and 8 of the 9 children and their families came to the funeral held on Saturday. July 4^th was one of his favorite holidays and they celebrated his life by holding the funeral on that day. Tom needed to be there to officiate and it was lovely to see all the family come together and enjoy one another. It made me wonder what mine or Tom’s or Mom’s funeral will be like.

I mentioned a lady visiting our ward who makes lace necklaces. She volunteered to teach me. So I checked with the RS president and then invited other sisters from the ward to come and learn with me. I announced it at church today and showed them some of the lovely necklaces. Now we need to find the 11.5 crochet hooks (about the size of my index finger) to make the necklaces.

From Chaos to Quiet

We had such a fun week. Andy left on Sunday afternoon to be back in time to work. So Miranda and I had all of Miranda’s kids, plus all of Andy’s but Nathan, plus Miriam (one of Jonathan’s kids.) They all did a really good job of playing together.

They’d go off to the fort or the treehouse or zipline. They jumped on the trampoline and visited the kittens in the barn. Poor cats certainly expanded their territory as they were carted all over the place. We did stop them from going down the zipline or on the trampoline.

Monday afternoon Deborah and children arrived to visit. It was so nice to see them. They joined the throng of playing children. It was interesting to contrast the size and intensity of Simon (Deborah’s youngest) with Alex (Miranda’s youngest) as they are just a few weeks apart. Alex is actually chunkier, I think. Simon, more relaxed and laid back.

Tuesday early morning most of Miranda’s and Deborah’s families went to pick blueberries. Tom stayed with the late sleepers. The children were really very good. They played “detective” and searched for the elusive blueberries. We probably got a couple of quarts plus some “on the job eating.” I came home and showered in time for my 9am mastermind call. It lasted until about 10am.

Then Tom and I headed out to the temple, via Ft. Leonard Wood. A few days earlier, I’d checked my Military ID card and discovered it expired in April. So we detoured to Ft. Leonard Wood to get a new ID card. We took back roads to the back side of the base, wondering if they’d let me in with an expired card. They did. But the GPS didn’t work on base and so we wandered around a bit before we found the right building. I couldn’t make a reservation, so we waited about a half hour. Not bad. And now I have a new ID card.

The GPS did take us out the front gate and onto I44 to St. Louis. Why did we choose this time to go to the temple, when we had a house full of kids?  Lacey Arndt, a childhood friend of our kids from Okinawa, was going to the temple to take out her endowments and be married. She’d been engaged a year to this young man after he’d been baptized. Now they were getting married, and getting her young son sealed to them as a family. It was very sweet to see this little freckle-faced red-head come into the sealing room and be remarkably reverent there.

Also, one of our newly baptized sisters was going to do baptisms at the temple for the first time. So on Wednesday, before the sealing, Tom and I went to the baptismal font to be a support to her. If I’d prepared better, I could have brought some names to be baptized. After the sealing and some pictures, Tom and I hot-footed it back home to get there in time for Tom’s 6pm meeting. We had the Miranda order pizza which we picked up on the way into town, along with some ice cream as an early celebration for Emma’s birthday.

Deborah left Wednesday before we arrived home but they still managed to scarf up 3 large pizzas!  Thursday everyone moved out. Miranda left first with her group. Then Kera left about noon with her children. The house went from chaos to quiet. They did a good job of returning toys to the proper places and getting sheets and towels to the laundry.

Even Tom left on Thursday to go to youth conference. So I had the house to myself. I had met with my “whale” client on Monday and needed to refine my proposal. So I took the quiet time to do that. I also had a promotion I was revising for my HVAC guy and an article to write for my business coach.

Friday, my friend Gerry Rasmussen was in town, so she came over to visit for a while. At 5pm the Arndt/Day wedding was having a ring ceremony rehearsal at church. Tom asked me to go and stand in for him and tell him what he needed to do, since he was at youth conference. I did and had a nice visit with the groom- Nathan. Then we went to dinner at Sean’s and I got to know his parents and grandmothers better as I sat by them. Nice people.

Saturday I weeded some in the garden and visited my neighbor. Andy and Katie came up to return the truck and get his car back. Tom came home, tired from the youth conference but pleased with the kid’s participation. That evening we went to the official ring ceremony and reception of Lacey and Nathan. It was beautifully decorated and had good food. The theme was the Great Gatsby and so the music for most of it—until the dancing—was quite enjoyable. I wanted to go to the Red White and Blue fireworks, but it didn’t start until 9:30 and Tom was bushed. So we ducked out of the reception and just came home. The problem with these Mormon weddings is they go on all week!

Today was a bit more relaxed for me. Good lessons at church. For Sunday school, I’ve been going to the family history center. But it’s been frustrating to look for people and not find them. It’s unrewarding work at times. I guess with all that’s on line, I just expect it to be easier.

Hope you all have a great week!

Family Comes!

Dear Family-

This has been a fun week. It’s been crazy busy in a variety of ways. Friday I committed to write an article that would be completed by Monday. So I worked in that, sent it off for review, got minimal revisions and got it completed. The client was pleased so that was nice.

In copywriting terms, the goal is to land a “whale”—a really big client who brings in a lot of money. If you have one or two “whales” that’s all you need to keep you busy and profitable. I think I might have landed my first “whale.”  I submitted a proposal and have a meeting with them on Monday. I had submitted the proposal over a week ago and had not heard back. I worried…had I charged too much?  I didn’t think so. It turned out I didn’t get her first email suggesting a meeting. So I followed up and her concerns were totally unrelated to price.

I finally got a new counselor called to complete my Stake Relief Society presidency. I visited with her on Sunday evening, and we scheduled a meeting for all of us on the following Saturday.

Tuesday I got my hair cut… finally!  I’d planned on getting it cut for two weeks and my barber/beautician was not there either Tuesday. Today she was!  Kera and family was scheduled to come up on Tuesday, but after getting everything packed, the car wouldn’t start. Also they were to have left later because they needed to get Nathan’s passport application in. In the evening I went to a relief society activity. They’d planned it at for the park, but after about 2 inches of rain that day, they decided to move it back to the church. Better than rain or “mugged” with humidity at the park, I think.

I had wanted to get Tom’s truck seat repaired or find a seat cover for it. The hole right where you sit keeps getting bigger and bigger. The seat is not a simple bucket seat. It’s a split 60/40 seat and they don’t seem to make good covers for them. To actually get it recovered is half a fortune. I’m thinkin’ about an Arkansas fix. Duct tape anyone?

Kera and family, sans father and two oldest arrived on Wednesday afternoon. The children fanned out to explore the fort, play with the kittens, ride the zip line and bounce on the trampoline. They are very self-entertaining.

Thursday Tom volunteered to take the missionaries to their exchange. Since it’s in Mt. Vernon, they’re only a few miles from Jonathan and Kristy’s. So after the exchange (we got a greenie) they went to visit for an hour or so and brought back Miriam to visit with cousins. Kera and I went out early to pick blueberries in the drizzle. Then we took Matthew to Cub Scout camp at the church. Late in the evening Andy and Katie and truck arrived. The house was all packed up and cleaned. All is done in Vicksburg… except Nathan is there sort of working. He is working for a construction crew, when they have work he can do. Because of the rain, he has not worked as much as he wanted to or expected.

Friday Miranda and family drove over. They met Kera in Springfield and she and Dan M headed north to their father’s house in Chicago area to help him pack up. His house has sold. He’s put in an offer on a house in the Russellville area and they needed to get him all ready to move. I hear they have made great progress and the ward has helped them put stuff into trucks. The kittens had even more little ones who wanted to hold them… and we had a few more scratches to wash and band aid.

The Stake RS is responsible for feeding the leadership on Saturday of Stake Conference between training sessions and the 7pm general adult session. It had been assigned to Houston ward, but Bishop Openshaw’s son, wife and 3 children were involved in a small plane accident and all but the 5 year old boy were killed in the crash. Two older children were on a mission or a foreign exchange student. A difficult time for the family and ward. So West Plains took over the food and did a marvelous job.

I had my training session from 4-6 and got to know my new counselor better. We had a great evening session of stake conference. Before I left, I’d tried to work with Miranda to get food ready for Father’s Day. We made lasagna and Miranda made tasty cupcakes. Then we learned Tom really wanted cherry chocolate cake… so today (Sunday) we made that, too.

Sunday Stake Conference was held at Dunbar Auditorium in Mountain Home. It was delightful not to have to travel to stake conference!  I made lunches for the Mission President and wife and the Temple President and wife who were speaking at the conference. I thought my secretary and her daughter were going to come and spend Saturday night at our house and help with that… but she ended up with a sick daughter. I was glad I had most of the stuff for the lunches. They just didn’t get into the cute bags she always provides.

Saturday evening we learned about ward and family councils. Today we learned about temple work and missionary work.

It’s been fun to have 9 grandchildren and a few children with us!  I love my family.

Life's Getting Busy!

Things are so exciting with everyone moving!  We’ve tried to keep tabs on Miranda and Dan as they’ve been out house hunting and offering all kinds of (likely) unwanted advice. Kera and Andy are moving forward with their move-- as evidenced by Andy coming up on Thursday to borrow our truck for the next two weeks.

Sunday, in a moment of a “perfect storm” thinking about mice in the chicken coop and friendships—I agreed to take two kittens as barn cats. They delivered them on Monday. These little things could fit in your hand. We put them in a stall in the barn. This stall had rolled up carpet from the garden, the mower, stacked chairs and other odd things. The kittens would hide in a different spot each time I went to check. After a few days, they’d come out when I called and be reasonably happy to be picked up.

Last week I had a very nice conversation with the vice president of a large financial newsletter. She asked me to send her a proposal for projects for both retention and renewal on their entry level newsletters and back end trading programs. It could be very lucrative. I said I’d get the proposal to her in a week. Then I headed off to Jonathan and Kristy’s for the next few days.

So that meant I really needed to be active getting this done at the beginning of this week. I spent the majority of Monday working on it. Then I spent several more hours on Tuesday and finally got it sent off late Tuesday night.

Tuesday I’d wanted to get my hair cut. She’d been closed last Tuesday (the walk in day) and when I drove there Tuesday, she was on vacation for the week! Gaah!  My hair looks like a tumble weed!

One of my friends is an inactive member of the church. He said he’d like to believe. It made him happy when he believed. But he can’t. I went to visit him and share a way I thought might help him to regain his testimony. I told him belief was a choice. He could choose to believe and try it, or not. When I asked if he’d try it…. he said no. He said miracles are like magic. You see it happen, but you know there has to be a rational, scientific explanation. There is no god. No miracles. Nothing after death. I felt sad for him to feel so confident in his unhappy state he could not risk trying to believe and be happy.

Wednesday I had my Mastermind call for my copywriting and then a Circle of Success (writing) training call. Then Tom and I packed up and went to Girl’s Camp. We brought the fixings for ice cream sundaes. We had foil wrapped meals for dinner, a devotional, and then Tom spoke to the girls for a while. We left Girl’s Camp about 10pm and drove north to Rolla and spent the night.

Thursday we got up early and drove the rest of the way to the temple. We had a couple from our ward whose son and wife were getting sealed in the temple. They asked us to attend, so we juggled things to go. After the session and the sealing, we went out to lunch with our friends, the Drakes, who had also attended the sealing. On the way home we stopped to shop at Aldi’s. We would have shopped at the feed store, too… but we arrived at 7:02 and they closed at 7. We got home about 8 pm and Andy arrived at 8:30.

I finally succumbed and had Adam buy me a smart phone-- A Samsung Galaxy 4-- same as Tom's.  It arrived on Monday.  But I waited until we were in St. Louis (where Sprint has service-- instead of here where we are on roaming) to activate it. Now I need to put in contacts.  But I've started taking pictures! Alas... they are not very good ones...  Here are the kitties.  They just wouldn't hold still!

We had a nice visit with Andy. Friday Tom and Andy cleaned out the truck. Andy also spent time on the phone trying to find out if the movers would move his 1000 pound piece of heavy furniture and investigating alternatives.

Friday I finished writing a heating and air conditioning promo. I also had a call with my Living Benefits Insurance agent and another agent. They’d been asked to write an article for real estate investors on how to use the policy to accomplish that. And also on Rebecca for breaking the glass ceiling and becoming the first woman to be top producing agent in the 175 year history of Mass Mutual. Since an article needs to have one main focus… this was a little tricky.

Friday night Tom and I went to see the movie San Andreus. It’s about a huge California earthquake—from LA to San Francisco… oh yeah, Nevada too. We got to see Hoover Dam collapse, a tsunami devastate San Francisco and some spectacular rescues. It was a pretty good movie.

I decided I need to find out what kinds of shots the kittens needed and what it would cost to neuter them. I don’t want more than TWO cats. Akk!  Free kittens aren’t free! It cost a fortune to do all this medical stuff. But they purr so nicely when they are held. The calico cat has long soft fur and a small black beard. So cute!  And the ginger and white one is fiercely independent. It’s so fun to watch them play and pounce on one another.

Saturday I sent off the Heating & Air Conditioning promo and got the first draft done on the Rice article. I called those I visit teach and checked on food preparations needed for next week’s Stake Conference.

Today I heard my Stake Relief Society counselor was called. I need to touch base with her and set up a meeting for next Saturday to visit together. My sweet grieving widow was at church today. So nice to see her there.

After church we went to a nursing home to visit a choir member who has been in failing health. We took a portion of the choir and some hymn books and went in to have a “choir practice” or at least sing songs together. I knew he had MRSA, but I didn’t realize we’d have to gown up and wear gloves to go into his room. Since we had a nurse as a choir member, she got us all robed up and in. I’ll include a picture of us. It was fun to sing and he was really touched by it.

Next week starts the ramp up to Andy and Kera moving… and Kera and Dan M. helping their Dad pack his house and move down to Russellville area as well. Miranda and Dan made an offer on a house and it was accepted. The house is in Broken Arrow… and even in their same ward. They should close on both houses on the same day—July 17—JUST before the reunion.

Andy and Kera held a farewell party for all their friends on Saturday. That was the time Nathan’s mission call arrived in the mail. So he was able to open it in front of all his friends. He will be serving in the Iquitos, Peru Mission and will report to the Peru MTC on September 22. We are so excited for him and know he will have a marvelous experience.

Tom's Week

 The first week of June was filled with inspiration, travel and excitement.  Sunday evening we attended a Stake wide zone conference hosted by our mission president who will be returning home in July.  He and his wife are great and wonderful examples of Christ-like love and are well loved by missions and members.  We received simple but profound guidance on how we can be a disciple of Christ.  The mission president's wife shared an interesting story of how to share the gospel.  She does a lot of shopping at Sam's Club and usually has time to visit with people and obtain referrals; but on this particular day she was pressed for time and was literally running down the aisles.  As she was rushing out to the car to unload her purchases she felt prompted to say something to the man who was helping her; initially she felt time would not allow this interchange.  But the spirit won and she simply asked:  "Are you religious?"  Yes was his response.  "Do you attend a church?"  No, but I am looking.  "Would you like to come to my church?"  Yes.  So she got his contact info and passed that onto the missionaries.  This whole process was about 30 seconds.  And, the missionaries contacted the man that day, taught him, committed him to baptism and later baptized him.  30 seconds was all it took.

After the conference, Tom drove the truck to Mt Vernon, MO and spent the night at the Iowa Fox's new home.  The next morning he drove 25 miles to the middle of nowhere to pick up a borrowed stock trailer and proceeded to the old Iowa Fox home.  There he helped with the last minute items so the Budget rental truck could be loaded Tuesday evening.  That was an amazing feat of charity; over 10 people from church showed up to help load; we almost had more people than were needed; and Jonathan did a fantastic job of filling every space with something.  And when all was done, there was room for everything!

Wednesday morning we finalized the packing of last minute items and loaded the livestock; the four cows, two calves and eight lambs were packed into the borrowed stock trailer. The 10 chickens road in the bed of the pickup truck and one unhappy cat road in the cab with me and David.  Kristy had the remaining 4-5 lambs and the goat in their trailer, two dogs and three cats plus three children in her van.  We left Norwalk about 1pm and  and arrived in Mt Vernon about 7pm.  We were all happy to be there and the animals were most appreciative to be set free into a green pasture.  Jonathan remained behind with Miriam to help friends load all there farm equipment onto a flatbed trailer.  He did not leave until after 5pm with the 24 foot van towing his car (he arrived around midnight, but then I wasn't awake to greet him).

 

At the last minute Sandy decided to join us at Mt Vernon and arrived about the same time we did.  She brought dinner with her too, so we were especially happy to see her.  The children were excited to be in their new home and explore its newness.

Thursday was a down day getting ready for the help that was scheduled to unload the van on Friday.  But there was plenty to do.  Then around 10am Friday morning the help started to arrive.  10-12 people showed up and in less than 90 minutes the work was done.  I love wards with younger people!  If we have a work party like this in Mountain Home, the average age is about 60; here it was closer to 35.

Sandy and I helped get some items set up and then hit the road for home; with an Andy's Custard on the way you know where I took a short break.

I was up early Saturday to participate in a 5 k run in Gassville; this is the third year I have run this race.  It is a low budget event and this year had the most runners/walkers, about 35.  I was really impressed with my time of 30 minutes and 10 seconds and claimed 1st in my age bracket (over 50) - but then there were only two of us!  Then home to help clean the chapel and mow the lawn.  Life is never dull for the Foxes!

Helping Move

Sunday Tom drove over to Mt. Vernon and slept at Jonathan and Kristy's new house. The following morning he picked up a 16 foot stock trailer (with no brakes) and drove it to Iowa. Jon and Kristy had packed and staged much of the stuff in the garage. The goal was to pack it into a moving van on Tuesday and drive on Wednesday.

Some how or another, the rental company lost their reservation and didn't have a truck. But Jonathan called around and found another truck... although it was a bit smaller. It was a miracle that everything fit into the truck. Wednesday they loaded 4 cows, two calves, 9 lambs, one goat, a dozen chickens, three cats and two dogs into the 16' trailer, an 8' trailer Kristy pulled behind her van, and into the truck, truck bed and van.  The left about 1pm to drive south.

Jonathan and Miriam stayed behind to help load the farm equipment onto a flatbed truck. They worried about fitting everything into the moving van... and it all fit. They thought for sure they'd have enough room on the flatbed truck... and they ran out of space for a few things. Jonathan and Miriam left Iowa about 5pm and arrived about midnight. Tired pups!

They signed the closing papers on their Iowa house and it closed on Friday after they left.

I decided to drive over to Mt. Vernon to meet the group as they arrived. I'd bought a pork roast on Monday and decided to make barbecue pork on Tuesday. So it seemed sensible to take dinner over to the new move-in's on Wednesday. I stopped at Aldi's for a few things to stock their refrigerator- bread, milk, cereal, fruit.

Of course the Frig was on the truck Jonathan was bringing, so it had to stay in a cooler for the night.  Then, they didn't unload the truck Thursday. They'd arranged for help on Friday. It was probably a good thing. They mostly rested on Thursday and took care of getting the animals settled in.

The children are delighted with their house. They love their bedrooms. They tramped around the property and through the woods to the pond. The grass is tall. The thistles are blooming. They went on a thistle hunt and whacked some down, but the experts say you have to dig them up or use broad-leafed weed killer to get rid of them.

Friday about 11 men and boys showed up to unload and they did it all in about 1 1/2 hours! They brought in some Subway trays to feed them as thanks for their help. It was the hottest day of the year so far. It was nice to chat with the men over lunch. Several are farmers or ranchers, so Jon and Kristy enjoyed learning from them.

After lunch we got Jonathan and Kristy's bed set up and their bedroom furniture organized. The Internet man came to finally connect them with the world-- and Jonathan with his work. The truck with the farm implements was to to arrive on Saturday afternoon. Apparently they'll need a tow truck to get the tractor off of the flatbed truck. (they had BIG ramps in Iowa to get it on.)

Early Friday afternoon Tom and I headed home-- each in our separate car or truck. We were kinda tuckered when we got home and Tom wanted an early bed-time. He had to get up early for a Saturday race. And he also promised the boy scouts who where holding a yard sale Saturday that he'd bring the donuts. He won the race for his age division! Horray Tommy!

I battled the weeds in the garden and did a little work. A week ago I'd spoken to a financial newsletter company and the Copy chief said, "we do auto-renewals.  I can't see a need for your services."  I was feeling a little bummed. Had I entered a niche that didn't have enough work? Then this week a large established newsletter said, "Thanks so much for calling!  We'd like you to send us a proposal for retention and renewals for both our front end and back end-- about 12 newsletters! So that was encouraging. Putting that proposal together will be my goal for Mon-Wed next week as it's due on Wednesday.

Today was a good fast Sunday. Nice testimonies. Good lessons. I spent Sunday School in the family history center trying to find out why Pauline Koch-- theoretically sister to Louisa Koch (wife of Bernhard Donop) is about 40 years younger than she is. And Louisa's mother was born one year before Louisa was. Sigh. Sisters maybe? Not much luck with the time I spent looking for links.

Next week shapes up to be busy.  But I guess that's good.