Thanksgiving Joy!

This week was all about family and Thanksgiving. Deborah and her children came up last Sunday evening… after they’d celebrated Simon’s 3^rd birthday. We lodged them in the suite. Hmm. It was nice to see how well the mini-split heated the room. It was warm and cozy.

Monday, about noon, Kera and her kids arrived. They took over the downstairs bedroom and spilled over into Nathan’s room (Matthew) and the library room (Katie and Aaron). Then on Wednesday, Jonathan and Kristy arrived… and late that evening, Andy arrived. We rearranged accommodations, giving Jonathan and Kristy the library room. Isabelle and Katie slept on blow up mattresses in our room. A few got tucked into the suite, and Aaron and David decided to be he-men and sleep in the treehouse. Ian arrived early Thanksgiving day. So we had 17 children (if you include Nathan in that generation) and 8 adults for a total of 25… plus two dogs.

I was surprised by how well everyone got along. Monday Tom and I finally closed on the 211 Spring Park house that had been held up by a title issue. After closing we went to the house and started doing some leaf raking. In the short time before dusk we collected 9 bags and created a HUGE pile of leaves. Tuesday Tom and I and Kera and a bunch of kids went over to rake leaves. Katie mowed and mulched or bagged leaves in back. I trimmed bushes. Tom, Aaron, Matthew, Sarah, and Emma raked and had fun burying each other in leaves.  They bagged another 46 bags of leaves.

Kera and I walked through the house discussing flooring, paint colors, trim color and a few remodeling jobs. The large laundry room has an awkwardly small ¾ bath and a weird place for the washer/dryer. Kera cleverly solved all our problems. All it takes is knocking out a wall, removing a floor-to-ceiling cupboard and moving a sink and a heating vent… And yes, we should paint the trim white and the fireplace. I hope it turns out as nicely as I imagine it will.

In trimming and weeding the overgrown landscaping I managed to come in contact with poison oak. I knew it was there, but with the leaves off, I couldn’t tell what was what. And it needed to come up. I thought the gloves would protect me. But, apparently not.

Tuesday we began the prep for feasting. I cooked a bunch of sweet potatoes. Kera made a huge batch of cheesy potatoes and some cinnamon rolls for Wednesday breakfast. I think that night we watched the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. Wednesday we cooked a ham for dinner. But we also made chocolate truffle and tollhouse cookie pies. Deborah made a cherry pie. Kera premade the veggies and sausage that would go into the stuffing and more yummy rolls. Kristy brought two pumpkin pies and made a wonderful apple pie from canned apple pie filling she’d made that summer. It was delicious! The apples were already cooked down, so the pie was dense with apples and spices! I also made a blackberry cobbler for Wednesday’s dinner.

Tom had done some food shopping on Wednesday at least once. Then as it got closer to supper we realized we needed more things and Deborah headed off to the store. We kept calling her and adding more things to buy— Ice cream to go on top if the blackberry cobbler, corn syrup for the pecan pie (then we found some in the pantry), cranberry sauce— which I was sure I had in the pantry, but did not.

Of course it all came together just fine— both Wednesday’s dinner and Thanksgiving. We had invited our neighbor, Barb, over for Thanksgiving, but she called… just not up to it. She was probably right. The commotion of 25 people might have been excessive for someone who lived alone. We got an extra table and chairs. Kera suggested a great way to rearrange the living room furniture and turn the tables window-to-kitchen so we could fit two in side-by-side.

It was great. And when we weren’t eating on them, the children were playing card games or monopoly or coloring or creating iron-bead creations. The beads aren’t made of iron, they’re plastic. But once you set them into a design, you iron them together into one piece of plastic. For some reason, this is endless fun. And I now have a variety of circles, cats, fish, and odd shapes of colorful plastic around my house.

Adults played 5 crowns, watched a movie or two, read, chatted, tried out some shooting, cooked, ate, and relaxed.

Thursday night Andy headed home. Friday morning Kera took her kids to Silver Dollar City and then home. Jonathan took his three oldest to SDC as well and they had a great time running around with their cousins. Deborah and Ian went off to try their hand at Black Friday shopping. We watched their kids. A little after noon they packed up and headed home. Wow… down to Kristy and two little ones! Jonathan and his happy bunch if kids didn’t return until 11pm or so.

Saturday was Tom’s and my turn to clean the church building. Jonathan and Kristy and family kindly came along to help out, so it only took about an hour. We stopped by to visit an elderly church member and returned home. The Mt. Vernon Foxes left early afternoon, in time to check on animals before dark. They were great about stripping beds before they left, so we did several loads of laundry and have most of the beds remade.

Nathan kept busy with work a lot of this week. And he’s been going to the gym quite a bit. So we didn’t see a lot of him with all the crowd. However, he helped rake and mulch leaves along our fence lines.

Saturday afternoon we went on a double date with another church couple and saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It was a good movie. Then we went out to a Mexican restaurant. It was nice to visit and get to know them better.  When we came home and went to enclose the chickens... we found two possums in with the chickens.  A little one in the coop itself and a larger one in the run!  We scooted the little one out and enclosed the chickens, letting the larger one find its own way out. Probably should have done them in.  If they know how to get in, they'll come back.  But we will set traps.

Today we had good lessons and good Sacrament meetings. The choir sang “Ere You Left Your Room This Morning, Did You Think to Pray?” It was a lovely arrangement and fun to sing. I’m working on making the Sabbath a delight. Tom helped out by making popcorn.

We are so blessed. It’s a joy to have so many family members who love each other!

Thanksgiving Joy!

This week was all about family and Thanksgiving. Deborah and her children came up last Sunday evening… after they’d celebrated Simon’s 3^rd birthday. We lodged them in the suite. Hmm. It was nice to see how well the mini-split heated the room. It was warm and cozy.

Monday, about noon, Kera and her kids arrived. They took over the downstairs bedroom and spilled over into Nathan’s room (Matthew) and the library room (Katie and Aaron). Then on Wednesday, Jonathan and Kristy arrived… and late that evening, Andy arrived. We rearranged accommodations, giving Jonathan and Kristy the library room. Isabelle and Katie slept on blow up mattresses in our room. A few got tucked into the suite, and Aaron and David decided to be he-men and sleep in the treehouse. Ian arrived early Thanksgiving day. So we had 17 children (if you include Nathan in that generation) and 8 adults for a total of 25… plus two dogs.

I was surprised by how well everyone got along. Monday Tom and I finally closed on the 211 Spring Park house that had been held up by a title issue. After closing we went to the house and started doing some leaf raking. In the short time before dusk we collected 9 bags and created a HUGE pile of leaves. Tuesday Tom and I and Kera and a bunch of kids went over to rake leaves. Katie mowed and mulched or bagged leaves in back. I trimmed bushes. Tom, Aaron, Matthew, Sarah, and Emma raked and had fun burying each other in leaves.  They bagged another 46 bags of leaves.

Kera and I walked through the house discussing flooring, paint colors, trim color and a few remodeling jobs. The large laundry room has an awkwardly small ¾ bath and a weird place for the washer/dryer. Kera cleverly solved all our problems. All it takes is knocking out a wall, removing a floor-to-ceiling cupboard and moving a sink and a heating vent… And yes, we should paint the trim white and the fireplace. I hope it turns out as nicely as I imagine it will.

In trimming and weeding the overgrown landscaping I managed to come in contact with poison oak. I knew it was there, but with the leaves off, I couldn’t tell what was what. And it needed to come up. I thought the gloves would protect me. But, apparently not.

Tuesday we began the prep for feasting. I cooked a bunch of sweet potatoes. Kera made a huge batch of cheesy potatoes and some cinnamon rolls for Wednesday breakfast. I think that night we watched the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. Wednesday we cooked a ham for dinner. But we also made chocolate truffle and tollhouse cookie pies. Deborah made a cherry pie. Kera premade the veggies and sausage that would go into the stuffing and more yummy rolls. Kristy brought two pumpkin pies and made a wonderful apple pie from canned apple pie filling she’d made that summer. It was delicious! The apples were already cooked down, so the pie was dense with apples and spices! I also made a blackberry cobbler for Wednesday’s dinner.

Tom had done some food shopping on Wednesday at least once. Then as it got closer to supper we realized we needed more things and Deborah headed off to the store. We kept calling her and adding more things to buy— Ice cream to go on top if the blackberry cobbler, corn syrup for the pecan pie (then we found some in the pantry), cranberry sauce— which I was sure I had in the pantry, but did not.

Of course it all came together just fine— both Wednesday’s dinner and Thanksgiving. We had invited our neighbor, Barb, over for Thanksgiving, but she called… just not up to it. She was probably right. The commotion of 25 people might have been excessive for someone who lived alone. We got an extra table and chairs. Kera suggested a great way to rearrange the living room furniture and turn the tables window-to-kitchen so we could fit two in side-by-side.

It was great. And when we weren’t eating on them, the children were playing card games or monopoly or coloring or creating iron-bead creations. The beads aren’t made of iron, they’re plastic. But once you set them into a design, you iron them together into one piece of plastic. For some reason, this is endless fun. And I now have a variety of circles, cats, fish, and odd shapes of colorful plastic around my house.

Adults played 5 crowns, watched a movie or two, read, chatted, tried out some shooting, cooked, ate, and relaxed.

Thursday night Andy headed home. Friday morning Kera took her kids to Silver Dollar City and then home. Jonathan took his three oldest to SDC as well and they had a great time running around with their cousins. Deborah and Ian went off to try their hand at Black Friday shopping. We watched their kids. A little after noon they packed up and headed home. Wow… down to Kristy and two little ones! Jonathan and his happy bunch if kids didn’t return until 11pm or so.

Saturday was Tom’s and my turn to clean the church building. Jonathan and Kristy and family kindly came along to help out, so it only took about an hour. We stopped by to visit an elderly church member and returned home. The Mt. Vernon Foxes left early afternoon, in time to check on animals before dark. They were great about stripping beds before they left, so we did several loads of laundry and have most of the beds remade.

Nathan kept busy with work a lot of this week. And he’s been going to the gym quite a bit. So we didn’t see a lot of him with all the crowd. However, he helped rake and mulch leaves along our fence lines.

Saturday afternoon we went on a double date with another church couple and saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It was a good movie. Then we went out to a Mexican restaurant. It was nice to visit and get to know them better.  When we came home and went to enclose the chickens... we found two possums in with the chickens.  A little one in the coop itself and a larger one in the run!  We scooted the little one out and enclosed the chickens, letting the larger one find its own way out. Probably should have done them in.  If they know how to get in, they'll come back.  But we will set traps.

Today we had good lessons and good Sacrament meetings. The choir sang “Ere You Left Your Room This Morning, Did You Think to Pray?” It was a lovely arrangement and fun to sing. I’m working on making the Sabbath a delight. Tom helped out by making popcorn.

We are so blessed. It’s a joy to have so many family members who love each other!

Ramping Up

This week seemed to accelerate.

Monday I started with a long list of tasks to do. I feel like I got far too few of them accomplished. Monday night for family home evening Tom and I watched the video from Elder Holland, Teaching in the Savior's Way. It was a very interesting video about modeling our teaching after the way the Savior taught-- with love, teaching the person, not the lesson, sharing stories, asking questions.

We've had unseasonably warm weather-- up to 80 degrees during the day. Really nice since the humidity is low. I went walking a few days and Tom ran most days trying to prepare for his race on Saturday. Tuesday evening I went to Relief Society where we had "speed frendshipping" which is like speed dating. We sat across from each other and asked questions and learned new things about each other-- even those we have been friends with for quite a while.

Wednesday was the day Zane was to be taken in to be neutered. Notice the tense of the sentence? We went out that morning to invite him into the cage... and found three large dogs on our back porch instead-- one of whom smelled like skunk. No cats in sight. They were the neighbor's dogs and perfectly happy to go back through the gate. The cats-- especially Zane-- were a bit more skittish when they arrived to eat.

Usually Zane lets us pet him while he eats. He did. Tom picked him up and put him into the cage. But before I could close the door tightly, he zipped out. Bummer. And for some reason, he was not eager to get too close again. Finally he came up to eat. I caught him... but didn't hold him tightly enough... and he broke away. That was the end. We called, cajoled, lurked and hoped. But when we opened the back door, he raced off. We had to call and cancel the appointment. This is a cheap spay/neuter clinic and they only hold it every 6 months. We'll have to decide if we want to wait until April, or pay more for a local vet. But first... we've got to get this cat happy at being picked up!

I fed the chickens more peppers this week. They seemed delighted with them... but their poop started smelling like peppers. And interestingly, when Tom broke an egg into cookie mix, the yolk was bright orange red. I'm sure we're getting lots of flavonoids... but the eggs still taste like eggs.

Wednesday I also went visiting teaching. I've been spending time preparing for the meals for Stake conference. This time the dinner was assigned to two branches. They seemed to have a hard time communicating. I was a little concerned they would over buy or under buy or not have enough people show up to help. I had also found out after I'd spoken with them that we needed to have a sit-down dinner for the visiting dignitaries, stake presidency and bishops and wives-- about 31 people. So I was trying do some of the work for that so the branches would not have an additional burden. And I needed to prepare lunches for Sunday for the Temple and mission presidents and their wives and Elder Costa, a 70 who was visiting. And we had some who were on gluten free diets and other dietary restrictions. GAK! That makes it harder. Thursday night I shopped to get everything I needed for both events.

That's because on Friday we were going to Silver Dollar City to connect with Deborah and her family. In Harrison there is a Maplewood Cemetery.  We've never taken that detour but it was still fall and I wanted to see the leaves. They were brilliant!

This was the beginning of the Christmas celebration. I have to admit, it was lovely to hear Christmas carols and to see all the beautiful lights. However, after an 80 degree Thursday, we had a 54 degree beginning of Friday and the temperature continued to drop into the low 40's as we walked around SDC. Man! I was not used to that cold! We saw "A Christmas Carol" and went on a few rides.  The kids took a ride in a mule drawn carriage.

We had such a good time, we left later than we'd planned and ended up getting home about 9:30. The problem? 

Tom had to be up by 5am for a race on Saturday. It was a big race--750 people and a benefit for Kenya. So how could he not run? There was a 5 K a 1/2 marathon and a marathon. Tom ran the 5k. I went with him to be his pants holder as it was 32 degrees in the morning and the river edge run made it cooler. He had a good run. We stood around and waited for the results at the finish line... freezing... and finally left. As we checked in at the cafeteria before we went home, they were giving the awards there. And we were in time to hear that he took 2nd in his age division. 

We came home and packed up and I even got in a 30 minute nap before driving to West Plains for Stake Conference. We had a great Stake Conference. One of the questions was: What obstacles keep me from building faith in Christ? What is my personal plan to build my faith in Christ? 

They also told us about a new video and advent calendar that invites us to spend the 25 days before Christmas remembering the actions of Jesus and doing the same things for ourselves and for others.

Monday we finally close on the house we put an offer on in September.  We started in on fixing it pre-closing.  Then there was a title issue and so we stopped and waited.  Now... just before the busy Thanksgiving and Christmas, it will close.  

We are delighted to have a houseful of kids from now until Saturday.  Deborah arrived tonight. Kera tomorrow evening.  The Jonathan on Wednesday.  Should be interesting.

Our Social Week

This seemed to be our week to be socially engaged. On Monday we sponsored the Empty Nesters Family Home Evening (FHE). We’d grown too large to hold it in a house… at least not our house. And we have a sister in a wheel chair, so the steps are a problem.

We got permission from the Stake President to hold the FHE at church. So Tom went over early to set up. We collected table cloths, napkins and paper plates. And set up more comfortable chairs. We had a nice turn out and a fairly well balanced pot-luck. We asked each person to tell about one lesson they’d learned from a General Conference talk, and I think that went well, too.

Tuesday Tom went down to the Calico Prison to talk to an inmate. We get regular letters now from some of them. Our first contact, John, is now out on parole and doing very well. Occasionally he’ll call and let us know how he’s doing. It’s got to be tough getting out of prison and trying to re-enter the real world. If you’re a sex offender or robber… who will trust you?

Some of the people in prison just bide their time and don’t learn and change. But some use the time to improve their lives and change their ways. Of course the proof is: Can they stick with the changes when they get out? Most of them don’t want to go back to the environment that got them in trouble in the first place.

Tuesday was Election Day. We’d voted early. It was nice. Then we could stop listening to the news! I find it interesting that the polls could be so wrong. Are they biased? Do they intend to influence opinion rather than just report it? In any case, Donald Trump will be our new president. I heard his transition team had someone black, someone gay and a woman. So I hope that he will be more inclusive than his campaign rhetoric seemed to indicate.

With the unhappiness about the Electoral College vote vs. the popular vote, it’s interesting to remember that Mitt Romney won the popular vote last time. But I still favor the Electoral College. It gives the mid-section of the country a little more control over the outcome. I remember when California changed the way it elected its representatives and suddenly northern California had no voice. I really don’t want to be ruled by California and New York.

Wednesday I worked on a website and finally submitted some samples to clients I’d met at bootcamp. Tom has finished up work at the duplex and at Deborah’s house. He worked some on preparing the garage at Rebecca’s house to receive a cement floor. That will happen next week.

Thursday our Elder missionaries left and for the first time in years we got Sister Missionaries in. We are delighted… but we’re not quite sure what to do with them. We need to figure out a way to get sisters to go out with them. What are the rules when they teach a single man? It will be a learning experience. We had them over for dinner on Thursday before Tom left to go home teaching. They had not even been to their apartment. We were a little concerned that the elders might have left them with no food, so we gave them some supplies. But the elders were good and they had enough to eat until preparation day on Monday.

I don’t know what I did on Friday. Writing, I assume. I’ve been wanting to get out into the garden, but have not. Now it’s finally getting cold. They predicted a cold snap and a freeze Saturday night, so I picked all the green cherry tomatoes… then it didn’t freeze.

We also had all these hot pepper plants loaded with peppers that we had no use for. I don’t know why we planted one… let alone six of them! But I had an idea. I tossed some peppers into the chicken cage and the next day they were gone. So Saturday I pulled up a jalapeno plant by the roots and tossed the whole thing into the chicken coop— tomato cage around it and all. The chickens had a grand time eating the leaves and a good percentage of the peppers. I wonder what their eggs will taste like! Since it didn’t frost, I’ll try tossing in one every other day or so and at least something will enjoy this part of the harvest.

Saturday Tom other youth leaders and the youth went out to do a morning of service. They raked leaves, cleaned gutters, moved dog houses and I’m not sure what else. They seemed to have a good time.

I went to the funeral of my hair dresser’s husband at 10am. I didn’t know him, but she is a sweetheart and he’s been ailing for a number of years. At 2pm Tom went to a funeral of a church member in West Plains. He’d been the trail boss (on horseback) for our pioneer trek two summers ago. Just a great man! Died of a massive heart attack with his boots on. A shock, but probably as he’d want to go out. It makes you stop and think what kind of legacy are we leaving behind? What will people say about us at our funerals?

Saturday evening we invited a young couple over for dinner. Tom wanted to meet with them and interview them and connecting with them had been hard. But food? Ah, that gets results. So we enjoyed dinner and then I went to my office to try to figure out how to connect my computer with our new printer, and Tom did his Bishop thing.

 In mid-summer Tom and I had changed life insurance policies. We actually started in April… but things work slowly and it was June or July before we finally got them in place and paid the annual premium. I was surprised then to get another bill for a hefty chunk of change for the renewal in November. What? Must be a mistake. After going back and forth with the insurance company and my agent… it turns out it was a mistake in that because they listed my age as 65, the policy was back dated. Since I signed the document… of course I read it all… I accepted responsibility. And it was past the 90 days to make changes. The insurance company should have let us know it was back-dated… but they didn’t. The agent should have caught the mistake… but she didn’t. And I didn’t. And the bottom line was that the agent could not in any way make up the difference from her share of the policy premium— it’s illegal. The only upside is that my policy will now have considerably more cash value at a faster rate than it would have. But we had to scrounge for the premium. Blah!

Nathan now is working at both Papa Johns and at TJ Max. He’s not getting a lot of hours from either of them, so he is still job hunting. He’s doing some studying and a lot of talking with Madalyn. I guess Madalyn’s parents are now aware that they want to get married this summer… and haven’t totally freaked out about it.

As a side note- Gray kitty aka Zane, has become more friendly.  He wants to be petted on his terms, but that's getting more frequent.  You can actually go up to him and pet him most of the time.  Good thing. He'd due to be neutered on Wednesday.  I wonder if he'll let us get close to him after that.

And I guess that’s about all the news from here.

Our Social Week

This seemed to be our week to be socially engaged. On Monday we sponsored the Empty Nesters Family Home Evening (FHE). We’d grown too large to hold it in a house… at least not our house. And we have a sister in a wheel chair, so the steps are a problem.

We got permission from the Stake President to hold the FHE at church. So Tom went over early to set up. We collected table cloths, napkins and paper plates. And set up more comfortable chairs. We had a nice turn out and a fairly well balanced pot-luck. We asked each person to tell about one lesson they’d learned from a General Conference talk, and I think that went well, too.

Tuesday Tom went down to the Calico Prison to talk to an inmate. We get regular letters now from some of them. Our first contact, John, is now out on parole and doing very well. Occasionally he’ll call and let us know how he’s doing. It’s got to be tough getting out of prison and trying to re-enter the real world. If you’re a sex offender or robber… who will trust you?

Some of the people in prison just bide their time and don’t learn and change. But some use the time to improve their lives and change their ways. Of course the proof is: Can they stick with the changes when they get out? Most of them don’t want to go back to the environment that got them in trouble in the first place.

Tuesday was Election Day. We’d voted early. It was nice. Then we could stop listening to the news! I find it interesting that the polls could be so wrong. Are they biased? Do they intend to influence opinion rather than just report it? In any case, Donald Trump will be our new president. I heard his transition team had someone black, someone gay and a woman. So I hope that he will be more inclusive than his campaign rhetoric seemed to indicate.

With the unhappiness about the Electoral College vote vs. the popular vote, it’s interesting to remember that Mitt Romney won the popular vote last time. But I still favor the Electoral College. It gives the mid-section of the country a little more control over the outcome. I remember when California changed the way it elected its representatives and suddenly northern California had no voice. I really don’t want to be ruled by California and New York.

Wednesday I worked on a website and finally submitted some samples to clients I’d met at bootcamp. Tom has finished up work at the duplex and at Deborah’s house. He worked some on preparing the garage at Rebecca’s house to receive a cement floor. That will happen next week.

Thursday our Elder missionaries left and for the first time in years we got Sister Missionaries in. We are delighted… but we’re not quite sure what to do with them. We need to figure out a way to get sisters to go out with them. What are the rules when they teach a single man? It will be a learning experience. We had them over for dinner on Thursday before Tom left to go home teaching. They had not even been to their apartment. We were a little concerned that the elders might have left them with no food, so we gave them some supplies. But the elders were good and they had enough to eat until preparation day on Monday.

I don’t know what I did on Friday. Writing, I assume. I’ve been wanting to get out into the garden, but have not. Now it’s finally getting cold. They predicted a cold snap and a freeze Saturday night, so I picked all the green cherry tomatoes… then it didn’t freeze.

We also had all these hot pepper plants loaded with peppers that we had no use for. I don’t know why we planted one… let alone six of them! But I had an idea. I tossed some peppers into the chicken cage and the next day they were gone. So Saturday I pulled up a jalapeno plant by the roots and tossed the whole thing into the chicken coop— tomato cage around it and all. The chickens had a grand time eating the leaves and a good percentage of the peppers. I wonder what their eggs will taste like! Since it didn’t frost, I’ll try tossing in one every other day or so and at least something will enjoy this part of the harvest.

Saturday Tom other youth leaders and the youth went out to do a morning of service. They raked leaves, cleaned gutters, moved dog houses and I’m not sure what else. They seemed to have a good time.

I went to the funeral of my hair dresser’s husband at 10am. I didn’t know him, but she is a sweetheart and he’s been ailing for a number of years. At 2pm Tom went to a funeral of a church member in West Plains. He’d been the trail boss (on horseback) for our pioneer trek two summers ago. Just a great man! Died of a massive heart attack with his boots on. A shock, but probably as he’d want to go out. It makes you stop and think what kind of legacy are we leaving behind? What will people say about us at our funerals?

Saturday evening we invited a young couple over for dinner. Tom wanted to meet with them and interview them and connecting with them had been hard. But food? Ah, that gets results. So we enjoyed dinner and then I went to my office to try to figure out how to connect my computer with our new printer, and Tom did his Bishop thing.

 In mid-summer Tom and I had changed life insurance policies. We actually started in April… but things work slowly and it was June or July before we finally got them in place and paid the annual premium. I was surprised then to get another bill for a hefty chunk of change for the renewal in November. What? Must be a mistake. After going back and forth with the insurance company and my agent… it turns out it was a mistake in that because they listed my age as 65, the policy was back dated. Since I signed the document… of course I read it all… I accepted responsibility. And it was past the 90 days to make changes. The insurance company should have let us know it was back-dated… but they didn’t. The agent should have caught the mistake… but she didn’t. And I didn’t. And the bottom line was that the agent could not in any way make up the difference from her share of the policy premium— it’s illegal. The only upside is that my policy will now have considerably more cash value at a faster rate than it would have. But we had to scrounge for the premium. Blah!

Nathan now is working at both Papa Johns and at TJ Max. He’s not getting a lot of hours from either of them, so he is still job hunting. He’s doing some studying and a lot of talking with Madalyn. I guess Madalyn’s parents are now aware that they want to get married this summer… and haven’t totally freaked out about it.

As a side note- Gray kitty aka Zane, has become more friendly.  He wants to be petted on his terms, but that's getting more frequent.  You can actually go up to him and pet him most of the time.  Good thing. He'd due to be neutered on Wednesday.  I wonder if he'll let us get close to him after that.

And I guess that’s about all the news from here.

Branson

This was not a diligent work week. It seems like the more I did the behinder I got.  And since I didn’t do a ton of writing stuff, I have lots of catching up to do this week.

I had a lot of butternut squash, so I made some soup. It actually turned out to be pretty good. I was taking some pictures of the squash and Athena decided to photobomb the pictures.

Monday Tom and I and another young member of the ward decided to do an “intervention” with a new convert who had stopped coming to church, fallen into bad company… said she didn’t like where she was, but wasn’t making a move to change. We’d wanted to do it nearly a week before, but couldn’t get all the participants together.

We drove to her work and met her as she came out of work (since catching her at home seemed impossible.) She is such a delight. I hugged her. We told her our concerns for her and invited her to our house for milk and cookies and to talk. It was a good meeting. She’d broken from the bad influences and with our reassurances she would be loved and welcomed, she agreed to come back to church. And she was there Sunday. I was so good to have her back. She’s a neat lady.

Tuesday, we packed up and left for Branson. We had three nights in a timeshare. We thought we’d lose out on the last night as we had to leave Friday evening. Umm as it turned out, we arrived a day early. I don’t know how I thought Tuesday was Nov. 2. Oops… but fantastic. They let us come in a day early so we didn’t lose that last day!

We had an enjoyable time shopping and wandering around. We thought we could go to Silver Dollar City… but they were closed all that week preparing for Christmas. Sigh. We did go to the Brett Show and enjoyed that. And when we were at Branson Landing, the fountain was putting on its lovely 7pm show.

We had agreed… in a fit of insanity… to a timeshare presentation. In an additional loss of mind we somehow came to believe that our family would have amazing fun and togetherness with the benefits of a timeshare. On the way home, Friday afternoon, we “came to ourselves” and realized we had a rich life and could continue to enjoy life without a timeshare and send off a letter of “right to cancel.” I do like the lifestyle dream… but not the commitment. The very nice salesman also indicated benefits the compliance lady said were not necessarily so.

Nathan seemed to hold down the fort pretty well while we were gone. He fed the chickens and the cats and mowed the lawn… or beat the leaves into submission. He’s working at both Papa Johns and TJ Max… but not a lot of hours at either place yet. He feels he’s moving forward with his goals.

We came home Friday night to attend a baptism of three very special people. One was very new to learning about the church. One had been attending church for about 8 months trying to get his life in order so he could be baptized. The older man had friends who had joined the church about 5 years ago and had gone from holding the church at arm’s length to finally embracing it.

The similarity was that they were all so joyful and so delighted with their new step. It was really special to see them radiate such feeling of happiness.

Then Saturday was stake temple day. 14 youth went to do youth baptisms. Tom drove up with a bunch of youth. One of our sisters also went to take out her own endowments and be sealed to her husband and child who had both passed on. So I drove up with three other people. In the endowment session 24 of the 26 people in attendance were from our ward.

Again, it was such a wonderful experience to share the joy of the sister going through for the first time and the warmth of being surrounded by friends and ward members through the whole temple experience.

It was a rich day for some of our ancestors: three baptisms, four initiatories, four endowments and four being sealed.

And today in testimony meeting we felt the love of the ward just enfold the new members. The one younger man had been considered incorrigible and a troublemaker through much of his youth and early adulthood. And now… he’s so happy and such a different person. Yes, he still has and will have problems, but now he has tools and gifts to help strengthen him. He has the Lord and the spirit to nourish him.

I love what the Gospel does for people. It makes me want to be a better missionary!

Recovery Week

Perhaps it was just a recovery few days.  After I got back from Bootcamp it took a few days to decompress. I spent part of a day reviewing my notes and deciding who I wanted to follow up with from Bootcamp.

I also had several emails and projects I’d put on hold while I was there that now needed to be dealt with. And of course I needed to record my expenses for tax purposes.

Tuesday I had a mastermind copywriting call.  Then I went to Midway to help Tom on the steps there.  He and Nathan had worked on them some last week— getting the deck in and putting up the basics of the stairs.  We added more support and did railings.  I’ll tell you, it’s a lot faster to envision it than it is to actually do the work.  Part of it is that we were designing it as we were building.  Still, it came out very nicely.

The picture doesn't show the 8x17 deck well. The steps are a good 3.5 feet wide.

Wednesday I had a call from a client I met at Bootcamp that seemed promising. And for the first time since coming home I took a walk. I had a great time feasting at Bootcamp on all the good food.  Unfortunately, a few additional pounds tagged along back home.  So it’s back to exercise and watching portion control.

Tom finished up the steps at Midway on Wednesday then turned his attention to Deborah’s house on Thursday. The carpet needed to come out of the two small bedrooms and we decided to put vinyl planking down instead.  Deborah bought it in Springdale and Miranda carried it here when she visited. Tom had ripped out the old carpet, but the floor was weak and uneven and needed a plywood overlay. So he worked on that.

Thursday was busy for me with some training calls and going visiting teaching.  Tom went shopping for materials for Deborah’s house than joined me for lunch with my writer friend Ammon. He is a WWII vet, a bit of a free thinker on religious matters, but wanted someone willing to speak at his graveside when he passed away. So he met with Tom to see if he would be willing to do that.  We shared a good meal and enjoyed Ammon’s rich stories about his life in Alaska, in the service, and other times.

Last week, Tom lost a bit of his tooth. He went in to his current dentist who said, that’s part of a porcelain crown. If I’d put it in, I’d replace it for free. So Tom went back to the dentist who installed it in 2012… and he agreed to replace it at no charge this coming Monday.  On Friday, as Tom was eating chips, the remaining 85% of the tooth fell off.  It’s a bit sensitive to cold, but hopefully on Monday they’ll put a temporary crown on it.

 Friday night Tom and I went to see the new Jack Reacher movie with Tom Cruise.  It was action packed and pretty good.

Saturday Tom and Nathan went to finish up the floor at Deborah’s house.  Nathan decided to take a look at the white river on his way home.  As he was going through a mud puddle… it ended up being deeper than he anticipated.  I took chains out and Tom hauled him out with the 4 wheel drive truck.

The car had water on the floorboards.  When it started it after it got towed out, water poured out the exhaust.. and nearly on our feed!

Nathan has been job hunting and had some interviews. It looks like he will start at Papa Johns and then perhaps work at TJ Max or maybe Harps. My goal is to have him start working on a free college math class so he can practice his study skills.  He mowed our neighbor’s large yard so she will come back to a leaf-free yard…at least for the next day or so.

Saturday evening we had a chili cook-off and fall festival at church. Good food (I took a pie.) and after games in the primary, the kids had a trunk-or-treat in the parking lot. There were lots of great costumes there. I saw a biker dude and thought, wow, we’re getting a lot of new people to these activities… then I realized it was a ward member who is a banker.

Today we had a great sacrament meeting and lessons. We have three lovely people who plan to be baptized next Friday. It’s exciting.