A new front porch... the beginning

It’s felt like a crazy busy week. Maybe that’s because I see the end of the year racing toward me and still have too much to do.

The garden is in disarray and needs to be put to bed.  But my excuse is that the tomatoes are still producing and the sweet potato vine is not yet dying off. No matter that about 70% of the garden could be weeded and tilled.

In addition to the typical writing I wanted to get done this week, I also went to Marian’s to do pottery on Tuesday. I had a casserole dish to glaze. I’d also been thinking about making trivets for next year’s Relief Society Women’s retreat. I wanted a picture and saying to convey the theme.  Alas, we have not yet chosen a theme.  But I created two trivets that might fit a possible theme- a well with “drink living water” and a sunflower with “follow the Son.”  I had a fun time with the different carving tools and actually made letters that look like calligraphy.  The goal is to fire the tiles and then make a latex impression of them.  Then that impression can be used to duplicate the pattern on other tiles.  I hope it will work.

Tom has started on his newest project- putting a porch where there was an aluminum cover down stairs in the porch area between the living room overhang and the garage.  He took down all the old covering.  Then he created a box to match the beam that supports the living room overhang.  That sucker was REALLY heavy.

He convinced me to help him hoist it up onto two ladders… with a bunch of blocks of wood to align it to the correct height.  Then it needed to be lowered to be wrapped with aluminum to match the other beam.  Then lifted it up again.  Then we put metal Greek columns (to mostly match the ones under the living room) under the beam and set the beam on top.  We were concerned that the cement might slope and so wanted the beam level and then the columns built under it.

I was really glad when the beam was finally attached to the posts and the wall!  I had vivid images of me dying from falling beam.  We—mostly Tom, also got the header up against the brick wall of the house.  Next are joists and then the roof.

Saturday was the women’s session of General Conference. Tom and I went to church to meet with other women to listen to it. It really was a great session.  Today we had a good choir practice and then the children’s primary program for Sacrament.  It was so fun to watch and listen to the little children. 

95° and Snowed Under

This has been a busy week for me. I received the initial payment for my Renewal Email Series job this week, so the clock started ticking on the deadline. I had some other projects lined up that I wanted to finish before starting this job. And then along the way I got other projects. So I stayed up late to finish the Creative Brief on the Email series. Then my executive coach asked if I could write more articles and the start-up company came up with another website—actually a series of websites to do. And I still have my HVAC newsletter to get started on.

So I’m feeling a little stressed.

Tuesday afternoon I helped out taking fair entries for the County Fair. I worked in the art and poetry section and it was fun to see the entries coming in. On Thursday Tom and I went to the fair to see how the work was judged. I didn’t enter anything this year. Maybe next year.

Thursday evening was a city council meeting. The owner of Creekside had wired the $50,000 money up front and come up with an agreement with the city attorney and the mayor. However they had to sell it to the city council. They were still grumpy over the apartment complex. Even though the city benefits regardless… they just don’t think the owner will be able to perform. Frankly, I don’t know either. They called me up and asked some questions. The Little Rock attorney asked me to say as little as possible… so I did. I was relieved they decided to honor the commitment they made two weeks ago. And at this point, my job has been accomplished.

We finally had the clock man come over. After oiling the clock, we now have ticking, time and Westminster chimes on our grandfather clock. It sounds so lovely!

The weather was hot all week, up in the 90’s. I had hoped the hot weather was gone, but it was not to be. Then Friday night a cool front rolled in and Saturday and Sunday have been absolutely lovely!

Last Saturday Tom and I had our 45^th wedding anniversary. So this Friday we headed off to Branson to celebrate it. We wandered around a craft fair and found some things we liked. Then we had a nice lunch. We went to Cottage Resort to look at a place for our Fox Family reunion and think it will work. We might add up rooms to see if it would work for the large reunion. In the evening we went to see the Irish Tenors and Celtic Ladies. It was a nice show. Good singing and lovely costumes. Some fancy footwork as well. We hit Andy’s Frozen Custard afterwards (about 10pm) and found it mobbed.  But we still had tasty ice cream.

Saturday we met Miranda, Dan and children along with Miriam and Emily at Silver Dollar City. It was the first weekend of the craft show and Harvest Festival and was pretty crowded. Nevertheless, we had a fun time. We did little kid rides and then watched the Wild West show. Then on to the Fireman’s Landing with more kid stuff—a huge ball area where things suck up balls and shoot them out—and on to the merry-go-round and climbing thing. Then we finished off with the “get soaked as you shoot other people” ride and the “Fire in the Hole” rollercoaster ride, which Ethan pronounced “Great Fun.”  He and Miriam and Emily went on it twice and were up to a third time around. But the rest of us were getting tuckered out, so we headed home.

I came home and finished my lesson and training needed for the Branch Conference at Mountain View—about 1.5 hours away- for Sunday. They have a lovely little branch and a dynamic Relief Society Presidency. So it was fun to visit. I tried to avoid sleeping through Sacrament meeting. And I did manage to stay awake when I taught the Relief Society class. I had good participation there. Then we had a lovely light lunch and went off to visit two sisters. The president said they probably wouldn’t let us in and they’d be short 5 minute visits on the doorstep. But we spent a good 45 minutes at each house. Lovely women and nice visits. I hope they come out to church.

We had a chance to Skype with Adam and Savannah tonight. That’s always fun.

Fall, Glorious Fall!

Time seems to be racing along. It’s hard to believe fall has arrived! Labor Day is over. Winter colors are back in. It may even be time to put sandals away. And on que, the weather turned cooler. Tuesday after Labor Day was our last hot day. Then clouds rolled in and dumped 3.25 inches of rain in about 24 hours. Now it’s about 50 degrees at night and 75 degrees in the day and lovely. Leaves are starting to fall on the lawn.

We had a lovely weekend with Jonathan and Kristy and family and Deborah and Ian and family. The kids enjoyed everything but the mosquitoes and ticks. I think the wet weather has made it a bad year for bugs. We have more mosquitoes than I’ve ever seen in the 21 years we’ve lived here.

Monday, after the family left, Tom and I went to check on a rental that had just come up empty. They left it pretty clean… except for the fleas we didn’t know about. So we ended up tracking fleas home with us. Fortunately (for me) they were more attracted to Tom. But he was not thrilled so unfortunately (for the fleas) we bombed the house, Frontlined the cat, and now seem to be flea-free.

We’ve been considering putting in mini-split heat and air in the two bedrooms downstairs. They typically stay pretty temperate until we have masses of people here. Then they tend to get stuffy and warm. Tuesday North Arkansas Electric came out and did an energy audit to see what size unit we’d need. It really isn’t feasible to put ducting into those rooms, so a mini-split is ideal—if a bit pricy.

I spent time trying to finish up other writing projects to be ready to devote time to my new project with Street Authority. I’d read that Bob Bly, a great copywriter, prints off all the promos and newsletters and information about the project, puts it into a notebook, and uses that as his resource. I know I gain more and can make notes easier on print than computer files. So I went to PostNet and printed off over 300 pages of material. Now to read and digest it.

I worked at finishing up some of the websites. This is one that’s mostly done now: http://quantumde.com/. So you can see I had to brush up on my knowledge of Nano-technology.

Saturday was my Stake Auxiliary Training day. The presidencies of the ward Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary all gathered in West Plains for training. I was conducting and in charge of opening exercises. I also had to oversee and organize the training for Relief Society. And we- the auxiliary presidencies- agreed to fix food for a light lunch. Each presidency made food for 30- pulled pork, baked beans, relish tray, and cookies/brownies. I crock potted 13 lbs. of pork butt and made a relish tray of the remaining bell pepper (slices), cucumber (slices) and cherry tomatoes from mine and my neighbor’s garden.

I think the training went well, but I was glad when it was over. Saturday was also Tom’s and my 45^th wedding anniversary. That’s quite an accomplishment. I’m so glad I married a wonderful man!  We will choose another day to celebrate more fully, although we did have a chance to visit on the drive to and from the auxiliary training.

In the afternoon, Tom went to some other meeting and I took the left over tomatoes and onions and peppers and made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce--sans meat—and froze it in meal portions. My garden did not do well this year—although the weeds are now spectacular. With the cooler weather, I don’t know how many more tomatoes we’ll get. That’s about all that’s left in the garden except for a monster sweet potato vine. If it bears, in any resemblance to the length of vine, we’ll have a fortune in sweet potatoes!

Next week we’ll meet Miranda and Dan for a day at Silver Dollar City.

Interesting week

Things seem to be starting to get interesting. I’ve almost finished the current start up webs sites I’ve been working on. The fun news of the week was that I think I finally landed a “whale”—a big client. I had a Wednesday phone call to talk about the project.

I wasn’t sure how well it went, but promised to send a proposal within a day or two. It’s always the debate on what to charge and I forgot to go back to my notes to remind me to ask for a percentage of the sales… but that’s okay. What was fun was that I wrote that I’d had a project put on hold (The one I was supposed to be available to do immediately and then…. No news) so I had an opening in September, but I also was awaiting two editors getting back to me (also true) so that spot might fill. But I had openings late toward the end of October. The editor got back to me THAT AFTERNOON asking if the September slot was still available, they’d like to take it. No comment on price or anything. I guess it’s true the busier you are, the less you have to dicker. So now I need to compose and send a contract.

The Creekside apartment job became more interesting as well. I wrote a press release, but the owner wanted to hold off until after the city council meeting. He had given a proposal to the mayor and the attorney and they agreed to put it on the agenda for the council meeting and I agreed to present it. It seemed like a win-win deal. My client would give the city $50,000 in installments to hold as security that he would perform the restoration according to the plan and time limits in the proposal. The city would have a security fence around it and flood lighting and security cameras and a night watchman, as well as mosquito abatement and yard mowing as it awaited renovation and through the renovation process. It was all at no cost to the city and they still got their $27,000/year in taxes. Or they could vote to condemn it and have to have it sit until all the appeals were exhausted and have no security during that time unless they paid for it and have to pay $50,000-$100,000 to tear it down.

It had sat for three years after going into foreclosure. It had vandals, squatters, and was an eye sore. Why not collect the security deposit and wait and see if the owner could fulfill his obligations. If he did, the city would get more income from the revenue of the people living there and from the construction taxes. If not, they had $30-$50,000 to help tear down the building. But no. The city was tired of having the building vacant for 3 years. My owner had only owned the building for 2 months, but he’d missed a deadline to get the fencing up. And, the mayor and attorney both claimed they thought the $50,000 was all up front, not in payments over a series of 4 months. And why should it take almost 5 months to start the physical part of the rehab.

So I was left explaining why it made sense to my owner to pay in payments so the city wouldn’t take the money, find an infraction, and condemn the building. (Oh, we wouldn’t do that…) and how they had not had enough time to learn to trust each other. (Oh, we’ve had time. He failed to perform… we don’t trust him.) And why it take so long to get started—permits, planning, assessing, putting bids out, and depending on other people when they can do the work. It was a pretty grueling city council meeting. At last they voted to go back to the owner. If he was willing to put the $50,000 up front, they would agree to his proposal and timetable. If not, they’d file the condemnation and he has 30 days to file to contest it. It was about as good a win as I could get, and my client was happy that they hadn’t voted to file the condemnation. Still, I thought the city was pretty stupid to plan to turn down $50,000 because it was just “buying time.”  I’m thinking, are you so rich you can afford to throw away that money?

What was harder was that just before I learned I had to attend that meeting we’d invited an investigator family and the missionaries over for dinner that night. We moved up the time… and I bailed early. But apparently they had a great discussion and the 20 year old daughter became interested in learning more.

Tom and I also went to look at houses for Adam. It’s possible his paid off house has enough money to help buy another house. We put a backup offer on “The Nasty House.”  It has 3 bedrms 2 bath a 2 car garage and nice bones. But it’s filthy. Will need all new flooring, roach droppings washed from every surface, new roof, and bath room repairs. But it has the potential to be a good house. Talked to the bank about financing. I love it that they are willing to work with me.

Thursday we had the Oriental rug cleaned. It had been returned by Andy and Kera and now that we had a hardwood floor, we had a place for it again.

On Friday evening Jonathan, Kristy and family came for the 3 day weekend.  They helped trim some trees and enjoyed a bonfire with s’mores… and ticks. On Saturday evening, Deborah and Ian and family joined us as well. It’s nice to see the kids playing happily (mostly) with each other. Sunday Hailey Alexis Reck was blessed in church. I had been asked to teach Relief Society, so I prepared a lesson on teaching and serving those we visiting teach as the savior would. Jonathan made delicious pizza to end our fast Sunday.

Life Moves On

We had a nice week here with Nathan. He and Tom used 42 bags of cement to put a floor on the chicken coop-- both inside the nesting area and in the small covered fenced area.  And still there was evidence of a varmint trying to dig into it.  Heh Heh.  Eat Rocks!

Then they spent time cutting down trees.

 And the cat looked on.  She has become a back porch cat... not a barn cat.  As soon as we open the door she is around our feet purring and asking to be picked up.

I had been having itchy and scaly ears for years.  It would come and go.  But now it seemed to be staying.  So I made an appointment with the dermatologist and got some prescription medicine for it. He said it was Seborrheic Dermatitis.  The medicine seems to be helping-- mostly a steroid oil that would have cost an arm and a leg without medicare/Tricare for life.

But it was an interesting step for me.  I have not used any prescription medicines in like, forever. And so many of our friends are on tons of pills.  So I felt like I was stepping into "old age" to go and get these prescriptions fulfilled-- especially for a disease that could not be cured, only managed.

In the ongoing saga of Creekside apartments,  I stepped into the position of representative of the owners and as such went to see the mayor. We had a very cordial visit and some of the material I presented to him helped soften his stance and better understand the owners.  There is so much value to face-to-face meetings. In this digital age, I think people in big cities or big companies forget the value of personal contact, especially in a small town.

I finished the website for www.QuantumDE.com or Quantum Dot Electronics.  Its a new start-up technology that takes computing down to the nano level.  I think that's a molecular level where the directional spin of the molecule indicates the "1" or "0" of a bite in computing. Talk about smaller-  it's 80,000 times smaller or more dense that current data storage.  And I'm now the proud owner of 50,000 shares of stock in exchange for my work.  May the company succeed WILDLY!

I made flyers and sent out notices in a last ditch effort to get sisters to do the Oil in Your Lamp program before November 6th George Dyer show.  I told them even if they hadn't started yet, they could start and accomplish goals.  I went back to my original goals and had accomplished all of them but those in the physical health section.  Hmmm.  Do I put in more effort there... or simplify my goals?

Thursday we took Nathan back home to Russellville.  It was fun to see Kera and Andy's new house. It's lovely.  And Kera has plans to make it even more lovely and serviceable and to put their own unique look to it.  Their kids have started back to school and seem to be doing well.  Even Charlotte, who is distinctly unenamored with kindergarten came home happy to share the story of Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? And she did a very cute job of retelling the story.

Tom and I returned home on Saturday afternoon to find the chickens still alive and the cat (who had gotten locked in the garage) out and alive and happy.

We had a good time at church today.  The choir sang.  Last week the choir had a mutiny.  Some of the singers were tired of singing hard songs.  Actually it was a soprano and in the last two songs the sopranos didn't have the melody part of the time. And it wasn't "fun" to have to work so hard.  So we may be singing simpler songs.  But we did master this one and it soundedreally good when we sang the difficult parts correctly today.

It's hard to believe September is nearly here and the year is racing to the end.

Two weeks again…

I had a lovely time at Deborah’s beginning on Saturday August 8^th. She and Ian went to the hospital the evening of the 9^th for prep work for her induction on Monday. By Monday morning she was not showing much progress. But she moved forward pretty fast and had little Hailey Alexis at 1:03 on Monday afternoon. (8 lbs. 9 oz.  20” long) Deborah was tired and having afterbirth contractions so we didn’t visit her that night. The kids and I went to a park that morning and then just hung out.

Tuesday we went to the hospital to see Deborah and baby Hailey. She was very cute and alert. Deborah was feeling some better. The children found the hospital room an exciting new place to explore. And they were delighted to see the new baby. Steven had gotten water balloons for his birthday. So after lunch I spent about an hour filling up 50 or so water balloons while the kids played in the sprinkler. It’s a good thing they had time to play in the water. The balloons lasted about a minute and a half. Then they were all gone and we were left to pick up little balloon bits from the lawn.

There were still some balloons left over, so Sarah started blowing them up. The kids had SUCH a good time with the balloons… except for a few ownership problems. They kept the little ones occupied for hours. Even 20 month old Simon could figure out how to rub the balloon on his hair or clothing and get it to stick to the wall or gently slide down it. At one point Steven walked around with 5 balloons attached to his head by static electricity!

Ian came home and mowed the lawn, but Deborah called him back. She had a sudden allergic reaction that caused swelling of her tongue, hands and other places. She had a lot of activity in her room for a bit and is now the proud owner of an epi-pin.

Wednesday morning I awoke to hear a child quietly moving in the front room. The kids get up about 6am-6:15. This one was VERY quiet… but I was now awake. I thought it was Samantha but when I said Hello, it turned out it was Sarah. She was watching out the front window to see if her Mom was coming home yet.

The children washed bikes in the morning…aka… got wet again and had a great time. Deborah, Ian and baby arrived later than expected. After lunch Deborah had another allergic reaction, but not as severe as the first one. So she came home about 4 pm and I took off shortly after that to head home. We had decided that since Ian had two weeks of vacation, I’d come back after that to help out for a few more days.

This week was international indexing week, so I indexed one batch of names to be placed in genealogical records. Tom had spent time working on issues for Creekside apartments, and we did a little more on that. Basically we got the job done as far as connecting the owner with contractors who could do lights, electricity, and cameras… although not necessarily at the prices he wanted. I got some writing done on the start-up website and prepared to train and teach the Relief Society at the Ash Flat Branch conference coming up on Sunday.

Saturday we went to Branson to do some shopping, check out resorts for family reunions (big and small) and get parts for the John Deere tractor. On the way, Ian called. Deborah was in the ER with breathing problems. Could I come back and watch kids?  I could not until after Sunday church, but Miranda came over for Saturday and until Sunday afternoon. I love my family!  They are all awesome people!

Deb’s problem seemed to not be allergy related as it did not respond to any of the allergy meds. In testing Deborah they learned she had fluid on her lungs. Not enough for pneumonia, but enough to make breathing harder. They gave her some diuretics and she lost 10 pounds in about 36 hours. She still has swollen feet. One of the tests made her radioactive. So she could not hold Hailey for two days or nurse her for 3 days. Sigh!

Sunday was a good meeting at Ash Flat. It’s about an hour’s drive to the east. I came home and packed. Tom and I decided to have him drive me to Deborah’s. Then he would continue on to Miranda’s and help her with the ceiling scraping and painting that she’d put on hold to go to Deborah’s. He dropped me off about 7:30 Sunday evening and went on.

Tom spent the next few days doing the scraping and painting, but also hanging lights in the garage, replacing a toilet flange in the lower bath, and laying linoleum in said bathroom. Then he and Dan put all the stuff back so it was once again a working bathroom.

Deborah was really good at not holding Hailey and trying not to have the other kids close to her. And of course they so wanted Mama. Fortunately school started on Monday and three of the children were out of the house. By Monday afternoon she could hug and hold them. Ian and I were the baby bottle feeders. Ian was a trooper!  He took the night shifts with Hailey. I was so impressed with him. He did a great job.

Ian and I helped get the kids off to school. I drove them the first morning and we survived. They seem to be happy at school. Sarah is a good helper making lunches and Deborah had a lot of the food organized.

When Hailey could go back to nursing on Tuesday, she took to it like a duck to water. Nice not to have trouble with that.

Tom picked me up on Wednesday and we got home in time for his church meetings that night. I had gotten a message from my start up group requesting I work on another website this week and try to get it done by Friday. Akk!  It was about ferroelectric nanostructures with piezoelectric properties and displaying a field induced vortex chirality. Talk about a learning curve!  Once I dissected the language I was able to make it understandable to the average 10^th grader that this technology could pack memory into a space 100,000 times smaller than today’s technology. I did finish it by Friday.

Saturday we got up early and drove to Memphis. We met Nathan, Andy, Kera, and Kera’s dad, David at the temple. Nathan took out his endowments. He will leave in exactly a month for his mission. It was nice to go through the temple with family. We went to Costco’s afterwards and then on to a delicious Chinese buffet. Then we brought Nathan home with us for about a week for slave labor.

We had excellent talks today at church. Nathan was one of the speakers and did a great job. I found some family members as I worked in the family history center during the second hour. And we had a good lesson on being genuine in Relief Society.

Sorry for the long missive…

Back to work

I think we spoke about Creekside Apartments and the owners asking us to do some coordination of work on it. From some misguided sense of loyalty, we agreed to get a contractor to put up security lights and security cameras. That doesn’t sound like such a tough job.

But the wires have been cut to and from some of the meter boxes and circuit breaker boxes. Even though someone was to secure the building, there are more doors opened each time we go. We’ll need a secure place for the modem for the wireless cameras. And the configuration of the buildings means that there will need to be many lights and cameras.

However, the more we email the owner, the more we realize he wants a lot done for not much money. We give him options and he says, “That’s too much money.” So the job is more work than anticipated as we have to spend time seeking other options and getting things properly done. We’ll need to meet with the utility company engineer. We need to create a game plan. We may need to get city approval for a permit as well as working on connecting phone and electricity (which ultimately the owner must do.)

I spoke with my mastermind group this week. I said, “I haven’t heard back from my “whale” of a prospective client. I’ve sent 3 emails and no response. I don’t thinks she liked the proposal.”  They told me what I’d tell someone else. “Don’t prejudge or assume. Keep trying to connect until you get a response.” So I sent a clever email entitled “Alligators?” About how it’s hard to drain the swamp when you’re up to you ankles in  alligators, so maybe she wasn’t responding because she had so many urgent demands. But since I hadn’t heard from her in a month, I wondered if the alligators had resulted in her demise and if so, I certainly wanted to send condolences.

I got a reply back in just a few hours: Hadn’t she emailed me already?  It was on the editor’s desk, along with a bunch of other things, and she’d try to address it next week. I was glad to know I didn’t need to send condolences!

I’ve also been getting more involved in this start-up group. I will likely be doing some writing for brochures going out to prospective investors. I was on a call with one financial advisor who helps clients use their self-directed 401k’s for alternative investments. A lot of people want choices other than stocks to put their retirement money into. The change in laws means that non-accredited investors can invest in these start up companies— but no more than 10% of their annual income in any one start up.

 I also have my first start-up company website to write content for in exchange for stock in the company. And I had a lovely call with the marketing director for Simpler Options. It’s a company I follow and have taken classes from, so I’m excited about the potential to work with them. At this point— lots of possibilities. No cash.

We had the young man who was baptized and the missionaries over for dinner and sat in on a new member discussion. I need to keep remembering these missionaries are only 18 so they don’t have years of experience Tom and I brought to our teaching of the lessons. The gospel is exciting and powerful!  It’s so much more effective when it’s taught that way.

My neighbor came over and I taught her how to make crocheted necklaces. She did a lovely job and is excited about the possibilities of marketing them. While our garden is not so attractive, it’s producing as many cucumbers and tomatoes as we can eat. I should be planting a fall garden now.

Saturday Tom and I went to see Antman, the movie. I enjoyed it. We did the afternoon matinee. Then I got into the car and drove to Deborah’s house. I got here a little before 10pm. Her church is at 8:30 so it was up early and off to church. A nice ward and good lessons.

Deborah had been having contractions off and on and hoped to go into labor on her own. She went into the hospital this evening to be prepped for an induction tomorrow. So one way or another, the baby will come shortly. I am grandma over the other children while she and Ian are at the hospital. The children are good kids and we are enjoying each other.

I had a call with the other stake auxiliary leaders tonight at 7pm and was a bit worried how that would go. But the kids were really good and quiet for the call. They were a little more vocal about bedtime… but all is quiet now.