Visiting Mom

This has been a great week.

Monday Tom and I left early in the morning to drive to Miranda's.  We stopped at Deborah' for a short visit and hugs from the grand kids who were not at school. And we got to Miranda's about noon.

Tom and Dan wanted to change out the french doors to a sliding glass door-- so the kids could step onto a mat before tracking dirt into the house.  And the french door scraped the mat away when it opened. So they set to work on that, while Miranda and I went to 1/2 of 1/2 for some therapeutic shopping.  I'm still mourning the loss of some of my clothes that got bleach spilled on them accidentally.  But I found some nice replacements.

The men worked well and the door was in place by the time we got back home.

I was impressed that Miranda's chickens were bigger than mine.  I wonder if that's because they only had chicken starter and mine often feasted on the hen's layer pellets. She was getting eggs!  However, on Tom's return home, he reported that we were beginning to get some small eggs, too.

Tuesday Tom took me to the airport to fly to Mom's.  It was an uneventful trip and Cynthia and Jim picked me up and delivered me to Mom's.

I've been trying to get up early and do some work to get a head-start on the day.  Actually, it hasn't been hard.  I woke up at 4:30 one morning and have been waking up before 6am most days.  I figure if I never get used to California time it will easier to adjust when I go home.

Mom had doctor's appointments on Wednesday and Thursday.  I was able to listen to my Clayton webinar on Thursday. Later that afternoon, mom was concerned about a possible UTI so we hustled to the lab and got there minutes before they closed.

Friday Mom arranged to have the florescent ceiling lights in the kitchen replaced with can lights. They had been buzzing and flickering and sometimes taking minutes to come on.  So this was a great excuse.  We now have a slightly recessed ceiling with crown molding and trim and four bright can lights that are 11 watts a piece.  Talk about saving electricity.  They also replace the hall can lights with these brighter, lower usage bulbs and holders.

We had to stay out of the kitchen, as it took about 7 hours to do. So what else could we do but go out to lunch.  Cynthia and Regina (a friend of mom's who lived above her for many years) went with us. we went to 19, a restaurant that overlooks the golf course.

That afternoon Tom called with the home inspection report for the new house.  It was better than I had expected.  Yes, there was a hole in the tub and rot underneath it.  But since we had already decided to update the bathroom and remove the tub it was not a big deal.  And we will have to do a few more things we hadn't expected to.  But the roof was in better condition than I had feared and the bay window leak may have a much simpler fix than we had thought.

Mom had wanted to go and tour the Braille Institute that just opened an office close by.  I found the postcard with the open house times about 3pm on Friday.  Open house went until 4.  Did mom want to go?  I thought for sure she'd put it off until next week.  But no, she called.  The said come on over!  So we dashed over.  There was no signage, so we wandered a bit, asked, and finally found them.They were delightful and explained all the services they offered.

Saturday Cynthia and I went to the Laguna Beach Sawdust festival.  It was really fun to wander around and see all the lovely things.  We just planned to look.  After all, we didn't need anything.  But Cynthia found a few things for gifts.  And as we passed a pretty wrapped jewelry place we commented on some pretty beads and not my color and soon we were chatting and the artist was making up a design that was my color... so what could I do?  I didn't just buy the pendant, I bought watching the artist create it and chatting with her and the memory of going to the festival with Cynthia.

 

Isabelle-  I took a picture of these purses.  They are made from lambskin and oh so light and soft! She said she was making herself a blanket from the lambskin to take camping.  she folded the skins very tightly and then dipped them in die to get sort of a geometric pattern in color on the hide.

 We stopped for lunch after only seeing maybe a quarter of the booths. But as we sat and ate and realized that we'd need to go and put more coins into the parking meter... we decide we'd enjoyed enough for one day. It was a very nice time.

That evening, we'd planned out Sunday's dinner, when Sally would come over... but not Saturday night's dinner.  I suggested In 'n Out burger.  Mom suggested Chinese.  She won. We went to a place she had not been for a long time.  The beef was very good.  The chicken? Meh.

Sunday I went to church with Mom.  Then Sally came down to visit.

Off to See the Mama

Last Sunday was a great day. I love it when family gets together. Miranda and her 3 boys, Deborah, Jonathan, and Andy's families were all gathered for Steven's baptism in Springdale. It was especially nice to see Nathan before he departs for BYU this week.

Deborah did a great job of fixing taco salad plus fruit and cookies for the baptismal refreshments. The kids all had a good time running around and eating. There were many ward friends at the baptism. Ian baptized Steven. So special.Tom said it was neat that three generations of Fox's helped confirm Steven-- Tom, Andy, Nathan-- plus of course many others standing in the circle.

We helped clean up and then left for home about 8 pm and got in about 10:30.

Monday I bit the bullet and helped trim tree limbs with Tom and the tractor. I drove the tractor and Tom stood in the bucket to trim off limbs that were low enough to whack the tractor as it passed. I was pretty apprehensive. With my vivid imagination I could see tipping the bucket the wrong way and dumping Tom out and running over him. Fortunately, none of that happened. Yeah, there were a few gouges in the field as I forgot to lift the bushog before moving the tractor forward. And yes, it was good that Tom hung on well as "smooth" starting and stopping were not my strong points. But we got it done with no angry words and only a barked shin from a branch that fell wrong. I call that a success. (the shin may differ.)

We countered on the offer on the Spring Park house and Tuesday the offer was accepted. We hope this is a good idea. I spent a bunch of time looking at hardwood flooring. I was really interested in some stone tile on sale... until I factored in the shipping costs. We have some time to check things out. It will be inspected this Thursday. If we approve the inspection report, then it will close on Sept. 30th. We agreed to do the yard maintenance until closing as a sop for reducing the price $6000. But it also gives us a chance to do some needed clean-up in the yard before closing if we want to.

Tuesday Tom helped me take a bunch of pictures for Barb's Etsy account. When you check out the choker necklaces at necklacesbylucinda on Etsy-- the neck is mine! The site is not live yet... we're still working on organizing the photos, writing descriptions and setting up paypal.

Wednesday I had my teeth cleaned. I also have two routine calls on Wednesday. At noon I have a group coaching call with Chris Marlow for an hour. Then at 6-7:30 I have a peer review group. This time they reviewed a 4 page brochure I was wanting to send out to promote my HVAC newsletter to new business owners who want to grow their customer base and increase customer loyalty and trust. They had a few really great suggestions I incorporated into the text.

Friday I actually went out and went shopping. Mostly it was to Walmart where I got cat food and cat tick and flea treatment. I also desperately needed to get my glasses adjusted. When I bent over to pick beans or do Yoga... they just dangled from my face. Fortunately I didn't have much of a wait to be seen for the glasses fix. I also got a new battery for my watch and a new watchband for Tom's watch. Such exciting things! Tom complains I just sit at home. And he's right. I don't go out a lot. But I am happy at home working and reading.

My Kenyan job finally came through. I didn't expect it to. So now I need to get busy and work on their website. On Friday I also needed to prep for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Saturday we went to the temple-Tom, My RS second counselor, and secretary. My 1st counselor is out of state for the next few months. My secretary was taking her mother’s name to the temple to do her work. It had been just over a year since she passed away.

We planned on doing initiatories at 11 and a session at noon. Often people who go to the temple just do endowments. I’ve found that the initiatories hold wonderful and powerful blessings from the Lord. And I was eager to have my presidency experience them once again.

We arrived at the temple. Each of us showed our temple recommends and went on in… except my second counselor. She was told her recommend had expired. She could not go in. There was nothing she could do!

We were all so sad! She went into the waiting room to sit and I went on to do the initiatories. I mourned. I was so sad she was missing all these wonderful blessings.

I thought how it was like the parable of the 10 virgins. Some entered the master’s house and for some, the door was closed. At that point it was everlastingly too late. Everything had to be done before that time. All the faith, all the obedience, all the doing- tithing, church attendance, arranging temple recommend interviews—all needed to be done sometime in the past. The moment of arrival was too late.

Fortunately for my counselor, this was not the final chance to come to the Father’s House. She will go home, get her recommend renewed and come back to receive the blessings of temple attendance. All through our lives, the Lord gives us this chance at repentance. We can go back and correct our mistakes.

My secretary had a fabulous time. She felt so bubbly happy joining her mom to her eternal family.

We stopped for dinner at the Panara bread co. and got home about 8pm.

Today was a good day at church. I was pleased that one of my less active friends came to church with her husband. I sat with them in Sunday school. And the RS lesson was on marriage and very insightful. Tom Had Bishops Youth Discussion after church. He'd bought ice cream and bananas on Friday... but just had to get up early to make brownies for the kids to eat as well. Now he's out visiting.

Tomorrow we will leave early for Miranda's and then on Tuesday I will fly out to visit Mom for two weeks. Tom and Dan will replace a 6' glass and door with a French door while he's there visiting. And I think the kids have talked him into going to White Water or Sliver Dollar City at least once while I'm gone.

Sand Dollars

Saturday, Cynthia and I went to the Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival.  They have all kinds of artists and artisans working and selling their crafts there.  We saw lots of glass blown work, metal work, pottery, jewelry, art, photography, fabric art, wearable art, etc.  We spent several hours there and only saw perhaps 1/4 of all the booths. The artist were happy to share about their work.

Several of the booths captured the ocean theme-- as the event is less than a mile from the beach.  Cynthia bought some necklaces with little shells and starfish.  That booth also had the legend of the Sand Dollar.

It reminded me of the scripture that all things testify of Christ.
"And now, seeing ye know these things and cannot deny them except ye shall lie, therefore in this ye have sinned, for ye have rejected all these things, notwithstanding so many evidences which ye have received; yea, even ye have received all things, both things in heaven, and all things which are in the earth, as a witness that they are true." (Book of Mormon | Helaman 8:24)

I thought I'd share the legend of the Sand Dollar with you.

Sand Dollars are shells of sea urchins that burrow under the sand. They are round like a silver dollar-- but bigger.

In the front of the sand dollar you can see a small star right in the center.  Then you see the pedals of a lily-- which symbolized the resurrection of the Savior in the western world.

You see four piercings to symbolize the nails in the hands and feet-- plus one closer to the center to symbolize the piercing by the spear in Christ's chest.

And finally, on the back of the sand dollar are leaves shaped like poinsettia plants-- another Christmas plant that's used to commemorate the birth of the Savoir. 

Finally, if you break open a sand dollar, out come five tiny dove shaped pieces-- symbolic of the dove that came at Christ's baptism.

When you look around the world, you can find many things that remind us of the God and our Savior-- Seeds that grow into the exact image of the plant they came from remind us that we are seeds of Deity and can grow to become like God.  Water reminds us that Christ is the living water.

What things around you remind you of God and the Savior?  Will you share them with me?

Life Flows On

I'm writing early this week because we have a baptism to attend on Sunday.

Last Monday I learned how to put products on Etsy. I started a "store" for Barb and her necklaces. We have not gotten it totally finished, but I learned to put photos up and descriptions and all the other things-- prices, shipping, product keywords. I was ecstatic when I learned I could copy an item... and then just change the details that needed changing! In the afternoon, Tom and I went to the new Borne movie. It was pretty good. Adrenaline kept going with all the chase scenes and fights.

Finished my HVAC newsletter and sent it off. I also updated the promotional newsletter that I want to send out in the hopes of getting more clients. I'm back to writing some more insurance video scripts. And I'm still working on the Tech start ups and publicity. I totaled it up and I have about 800,000 shares of worthless stock. I hope someday some of it might be worth something.

Our now favorite realtor, Kent Smith called us and suggested we offer on a house. It was one that had belonged to someone Tom home taught who had passed away. The new wife and old husband didn't maintain it well and it had some problems. So the heirs were offering it for a pretty low price. We looked it over and did the numbers. It wasn't quite low enough for us. We'll see if they are willing to come down a bit. I spent some time looking at flooring and tile.

Friday night the young women at church had a fundraiser. They had a spaghetti dinner with a silent auction for desserts.  The cultural hall was set up with intimate dining for two, menus and the girls as waitresses.  We pulled another table over for a new couple that just moved into the ward and visited with them over dinner. Although Tom bid on some deserts, we were outbid.

That was fine.  I don't need desserts.  I've been working on changing my health patterns to exercising more and eating more moderately.  I've been keeping a food journal and walking, gardening, and doing yoga.  I lost about 3.5 pounds the first week and was delighted.  Alas... the pounds weren't lost.  Some of them found me again. Blah!  But I will keep working on it.

We've had beastly hot weather this week. It really has been high humidity, high temperature, sweat dripping off you kind of weather. Today the temperature has dropped with storms forecast for the next few days.

I have tried to be more balanced in my writing time and doing other things time-- exercise, garden, etc.  However I've also plunged into the book-reading time.  I started a series recommended by Rebecca.  The first in the series is Cinder by Marissa Meyer.  Then Scarlett and Cress. Each is loosely based on a fairytale but they all intertwine in a larger futuristic plot.  It's been quite gripping.

Saturday Tom went to a youth activity at the lake.  They swam and cooked hamburgers and hot dogs. The were worried about the rain, but it held off for the duration of the activity. Now we're having rumblings.

Sunday after church Tom and I will drive to Deborah's house... or to her church.  Steven will be baptized.  I believe Andy, Jonathan, and Miranda will all join her to with their families.  It's such a delight to be close enough to get together for special events.  And it gives us a chance to return all the small things they've left behind at our house... and share the cucumber bounty we have.

The chickens are 4 months old. Old enough to start laying.  We think maybe one is beginning to lay... but that's not nearly enough.  Tom has been speaking to them about laying each time he goes out to them.  So far they have not responded positively to his encouragement.

Our gray cat, Zane (as in Zane Gray) is finally getting over his fear of us.  We used to only be able to pet him when we was eating breakfast.  But now, when I go outside, both cats come up to be petted.  I tried lifting him to my lap today, but he quickly jumped off.  On the plus side, he let me lift him up, and he didn't use claws to jump off.

Really not a lot exciting, new or different... but we keep busy.

Getting Back to Normal

We continued in a heat wave this week with temps in the mid 90s... until we finally got 2.75 inches of rain on Friday night. But we were undeterred. Both Tom and I decided it was time to get into a better routine. I had been wanting to exercise and eat healthier, this week, I decided to exercise at least three times a week and to write down everything I ate.

Deborah is my accountability partner and she has been very good about checking in on me. This week I walked three days 1.5 miles and I did two days of yoga. I decided to try that. I'm in "30 days of Yoga with Arlene." It was one of the first videos that came up on YouTube under "Yoga" and I'm enjoying it.  I'm actually doing it every other day.  And I've been working in the garden. It's time to replant for fall. Tom rototilled... then weeds came up.... and he rototilled again. So I'll plant and hope most of the weed seeds have been eliminated.

This has been a great year for cucumbers... pretty good for beans and zucchini... not so hot for peppers and tomatoes.

Monday night we went to see the new Star Wars movie. It was enjoyable.

Tuesday I made flight arrangements to go and visit Mom. I'll leave on August 23rd and return Sept 6th-- both Tuesdays. Tuesday we also went to look at a house to think about buying. It actually was a great deal and would not need all that much financial investment... but lots of work. We crunched numbers and put in an offer on Friday. It will be offered first to owner/occupiers, and then, a week later, opened up to investors.  There are other offers in, so who knows. But it would be a fun house to renovate. We had a single mom and her daughter over for dinner that night. Then Tom spent on hour on the tractor beating the grass into smaller pieces.

We had the AC conk out at our Whiteville house. The 'under the house' distribution box where all the ducts tie into was falling apart so air was freely being released in the crawl space. Our favorite  heat and air guy was so swamped he said it would be weeks before he could get to it. That might have been in part because it was a nasty repair job in cramped quarters.

 This was the box beneath the heater that had all the ductwork going out of it.-- notice the few holes.

  He did recommend someone else. Tom met with those guys and they gave an estimate but recommended replacement of the AC at the same time as it was very old. We decided to go the more expensive route to replace rather than just repair. So they came out on Friday to do that. Our tenant said they were very professional.... and that it's cooling much better now.

I've continued to work on tech websites and publicity. Apparently one tech has the interest of some big companies. As I own some stock in that company, it would be nice if good things happened to it. There was a company in Kenya that asked about a web site. I was pretty sure they would not be willing to pay my price... but I quoted an offer and it looks like they will accept. I thought about one of the young returned missionaries there that has a pretty good command of English. Perhaps he could become a copywriter. I offered to help him, but at this time he doesn't have a computer or steady access to one. I was, however able to gift him the AWAI basic course and he's excited about that. I would like to see if there's a way I can get him to do some work on this website so he can have a beginning portfolio of work done.

Saturday Tom took the youth of our ward to the temple to do baptisms. He was gone all day and then came home to a young man being baptized into the church in our ward. This young man has been coming for years with his mom and sister... and finally made the decision to be baptized himself.  I'm glad he took the time to decide on his own and not follow any kind of pressure.

Today was as great fast and testimony meeting. I also had a chance to meet with the stake president and get my temple recommend renewed. Our Relief Society lesson was on Elder Renlund's talk about "The farther apart the giver and the receiver are, the more there is a sense of entitlement." For example if a friend gives you something, you may feel grateful. But if the government gives you something, you feel you deserve it. She used the examples of Nephi and Lamon to show the difference. One sought to draw closer to the Giver of All things and to understand and be grateful. The other drew away from God and complained that blessings  given to others should have come to him... that it wasn't fair. She said when we get angry, resentful or critical of the way things are... it's time for a check on how close we are to the Lord.

Sad Tuesday

Monday I finally got a hold of the new retreat center we wanted to hold the Family Reunion at and got the OK to go and visit on Wednesday.  On my calendar, it looks like I had a lot of things to do and didn't get them done... So I'm not sure what I did.  Rebecca had the herculean task of gathering up all her family items and getting them packed away.  She was extremely successful. I think only one thing got left behind.

Rebecca packed the car and then went to a chiro appointment.  Tom and I planned on leaving shortly after she did.  She had a goal to leave by noon.... but we thought, She's not going to make that.  So we lollygagged and did some other stuff.  By golly, she came home from the Chiropractor, loaded up the backpacks and kids... and took off!  Just about at noon!

It was sad to see them go and know it will be a year before we see them again.  But we had SUCH fun while they were here.  We did some sheet and towel washing Tuesday morning.  But shortly after Rebecca left, we took off to visit Jonathan and Kristy.

It was delightful that they were in the path of our trip to check out the new retreat center.  So we had a lovely evening with them. The next morning we left about 8 AM and drove to Perry, Kansas.  The caretaker of the Chihowa Retreat Center was just delightful!  She was so willing to show us around and explain things.  They didn't have any campers there, so we got to see everything that we wanted.  It looks to be a great place for family gatherings.  It was nice that they had the equipment for the volleyball, basketball, and baseball courts and fishing lines and canoes and paddle boats for the lake.

Afterwords, we drove into Lawrence, KS and stopped at the visitor's center.  We had a delightful lunch at a bakery and headed back to Jonathan and Kristy's. We got back in time for dinner and some visiting.  Tom helped Jonathan fix the garage door and cleaned out the two pounds of hair in the upstairs bathroom. And taught Isabelle how to do it in the future.

Kristy invited us to go to White Water with them on Thursday. We'd brought swimsuits, but not other things like over-shirts or water shoes.  But they accommodated us with the needed equipment and off we went.  It was a fun time.  I mostly hung out with Zachary in the little kids area and wave pool.  But I especially liked the family tube ride.

We left about noon and stopped at Aldi's on the way home for some groceries.  I just had time to unpack, shower and turn around for a 5pm dinner engagement. I'd invited my neighbor to go with me to a presentation about retirement.  Based on the flyer, I assumed it was a kind of insurance product, and it was.  It could be useful, but I think I have my retirement planning kind of in place. The presentation was at Gaston's Restaurant right on the White River so it was a pretty place to eat.

I got back home in time to help Tom with some of the bed making.  He did a great job of organizing the toy closet back to it's original condition and vacuuming and getting all the bedding washed and organized and put neatly away.  He is AWESOME!

Friday my goal was to dive into all the projects I'd delayed for three day.  I don't know that it happened.  I mostly caught up with emails, answered LinkedIn requests, and finished a website.  I did spend a few hours revising a teacher workbook for Seed Digging. Every time I read about it, it sounds so successful!  It's a way to get at the root of problems that cause emotional distress.

Saturday we weeded the garden and picked veggies. I was speaking Sunday so my first priority was to complete my talk.  We had invited people over for lunch Sunday as well.  They live out of town and their daughter was getting her Patriarchal Blessing here in Mountain Home.  So my second priority was to make a chicken salad for Sunday. That entailed going to Walmart to shop and get a rotisserie chicken to use. A friend introduced me to that short-cut and I'm not sure its faster, but it's tastier.

Friday evening, Tom went to a rehearsal dinner for a wedding and Saturday we drove over for the wedding itself. It was held on the property behind our house.  Well, a part of the 500 acres the bride's father owns.  It was a lovely wedding.  It was sprinkling/raining off and on up until the actual ceremony-- which was outdoors on a hill.  The rain let up in time for the wedding.  It was perfect, no sun in the eyes, cooler, and a radiant bride and groom.

Today/Sunday, I tried to get my missionary letter done before church.  I think my talk went well.  It was based on President Uchdorf's talk about the Savior finding the lost sheep and carrying it on his shoulders.  He spoke about how valuable we are to the Lord and how much he loves us.  He knows our weaknesses, sins, infirmities-- and still he felt we are valuable enough to atone for us.  He knows the sheep who are lost and he loves them enough to seek them out and bring them back.

The family who came to lunch have 7 children ages almost 16 to under two. They were very well behaved.  He is a teacher in Mansfield. We had a nice visit before they left for the patriarchal blessing.  They left 6 children behind.  Tom was home by then and did a great job entertaining them with the zip line-- until it started raining-- and then with mad checkers games.

Pioneer Day

The beastly hot weather has continued. It's a good week to stay inside. It was nice to have Rebecca and family back with us! The kids are fun to interact with... and Rebecca fixes delicious food!

Monday is always "dig in and work hard at all the stuff you didn't get done last week" day. I worked on my heating & cooling newsletter and did some following up.  Last week one of our less active sisters died.  She was not close to her family and asked a friend to be her executor. So it ended up that Tom was doing the funeral and I was giving the eulogy. I called the friend and gleaned knowledge from her. Then at the viewing on Monday evening, she had a step-daughter there (about the same age as the deceased) and she had a lot more information.  It was interesting to hear the other side of the family's divorce and estrangement causes.  I wrote the eulogy after gathering all that info.

We also connected with Chihowa retreat and may have found a better place for the family reunion. We hope to drive up there this week to take a look. You can check it out at Chihowa.org. I typed up info and sent it out to the sibs. Once we view the place, we'll try to send it to everyone else.

Tuesday was the funeral.  Tom and I got up early and weeded the garden and picked veggies. We have a great abundance of green beans and cucumbers. We've been using them, freezing the beans and giving the cukes away to friends and people at church.  That evening Rebecca, Tom and I went to see Central Intelligence. I'd rate it a B-. Too much slapstick and foul words for me, but an interesting premise and enough plot twists to keep you wondering until the end.

Wednesday I wrote the web pages for BotAlert-- a software that reveals automated robot tweets on Twitter. Did you know that about 40% of both candidate's "followers" are bots? Bots can spread dis-information, skew metrics, alter public opinion, Spam hate, and reduce the enjoyment of actually tweeting real friends. Some have been used to incite rebellion and change the course of elections. When people give so much weight to Social Proof, and that proof turns out to be manufactured, it give others more control than they should have. So this software detects them so they can be booted out.

Thursday I spoke with a hedge fund manager and asset manager at a small firm. He was looking for someone to help write his bi-weekly letter.  It was very interesting to talk to him. I hope it works out as I think I'd learn a lot. For some reason, this seemed like a good evening to serve Tom his favorite birthday meal-- Liver and Onions. Rebecca and family were having leftovers. I made a Chocolate cake, too.

Friday, when we would actually celebrate, Rebecca went off to Silver Dollar City. She was actually doing compassionate service. She was taking a sister to the airport... with an SDC stop on the way. The sister had an extra ticket she volunteered to give to Josh, so that added incentive. They made a pretty early day of it, and returned home in time to do cake and gifts for Tom's birthday.

I think our septic issue is finally over and finished at our Whiteville house!  Now the A/C is acting up. Oh, the joys of rental property. One ward member has been in the hospital with a bowel obstruction. He was working on a rental house, trying to get it ready to sell. 

Tom organized a work party and they went over on Friday to hang doors, paint, clean up trash and mow.  Tom went back again  two or three more times to try to get all the junk out from under the house-- walk out basement? Saturday morning he took Josh, Riley and Delaney with him to do some of the shoveling. Below is the trailer loaded with most of the stuff.

In the Evening Tom took some of the helpers out for ice cream.

Friday evening I helped Tom bake a blackberry pie and Rebecca made some pies as well for the Ward Pioneer day on Saturday. She also made a quilt top to quilt there. On Saturday morning I sliced some tomatoes from the garden and made cucumber salad. It was sweet, an older German lady said, "Oh that was wonderful salad. It reminded me of Germany."  I told her it was Nana's recipe and she was from Switzerland.

Rebecca and I set up two small quilts. One older sister wanted to learn to quilt. And several younger girls were interested in helping out-- including two of the grandchildren.

We also had the traditional tug of war between the bishopric and the primary children. The second run, Tom enlisted the aid of some young adults. Tom was thankful the traditional wading pool at the center line was gone as his feet stayed dry this time. It was a fun activity!

I came home and made spaghetti sauce from all the overripe tomatoes sitting on our counter. We turned it into baked zitti for dinner.

Today at church was good.  The choir sang a different but lovely version of "Come, Come, Ye Saints."  I got my temple recommend 1/2 renewed.  I need a second interview to complete it.  Tonight I have a phone meeting with my Relief Society Presidency.

This afternoon, Marian was in search of a prince... all she found was a frog.