I stopped midstream and headed over to Dorrie's house, and we headed to Millie's Hallmark in Awatukee. They have the most awesome Dept 56 village displays. We usually go on their annual sale day, but we weren't able to attend, so the shopping this time was slow and nice. The guy that puts together these displays is awesome! We had a great lunch at Sweet Tomatoes and I headed to Albertsons, got some on-sale chicken breasts, and spent the next couple of hours grinding and packaging them, since my Zaycon chicken order is delayed a few weeks. Dee had stopped at Deseret Industries to drop off some cleaned out books on his way there.
I had hoped to get two boxes of decorations up that day, but it was going slow. Perhaps next year I should number the boxes???
Dee and I headed to Costco after work was over, bought chicken food and toilet paper...and a hot dog for Dad, headed to WalMart (where he sat in the car talking to his friend, Randy, on the phone...Dee told Randy that one of his suppliers, who is also a former employer of Randy's, would love to have him back working for them. Randy got hired and has been working there since last Thursday) while I bought some new orange LED lights for around the front door, and then to Lowe's to buy wood for a raised bed garden on the other side of the back yard for Dad's peppers.
He worked on the yard, and I worked on the house. I got the stuff in those two boxes put up and started on the next two. We took a quick drive to see the temple all lit up...I just never get tired of that! A few minutes of the news and we headed to bed.
Tuesday - It was cooler, or less humid, so I ran in a different direction to the temple and back. It's a little less that 3 miles, but I hope it keeps potential criminals guessing. I on those nexI t two boxes...putting up LOTS of bugs and centipedes and even face snakes in the bathroom, and got to the final box five when Nano came by to visit.
She brought this jewelry box of my dad's. As soon as I saw it, I remembered it being in his top dresser drawer.
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| The box is leather with the symbols from my mom's college sorority, Alpha Delta Phi. She said that when there was a special dance or event, they would give their date a gift, and this was a gift she gave to my dad when they were dating. |
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| This is one of two cuff links. I remember when I was little at our old house on Tuckey Lane, he would take a little tin pan from a chicken pot pie and put these clear marbles in boiling water, and then in cold water, so they would crackle, and then he would make tie pins and cuff links. |
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| Some of his rings |
I finished the decorating...other than the spider webbing, which Kayty uses her Party City skills to do...and started cleaning up.
I had a great interruption: a phone call from Nathan. His doctor is trying another treatment for his headaches. Celiac bloodwork came up negative so they are trying another medication, plus vitamins (riboflavin, magnesium, and CoQ10) and exercise. The meds make him feel pretty nauseous, so he was gonna rest. School is good, and there is more homework in his religion class than in his engineering class. Little Lilly was not feeling well for a few days last week, but has seemed to be much better.
Got my chores all done by the early evening, squeezed some key limes and headed to church for a visiting teaching interview...which was to happen the next night. Grrr...
Dee built a raised bed garden box, and reloaded some bullet shells
Trash out and down the road...that's it!
Wednesday - Beau was barking, so I finally let him in. It was time to get up anyway. Run was cooler, though I was still soaked in perspiration when I got home. I found some red paint and painted the raised bed garden box Dee built.
I should have worn gloves. I really don't understand why I don't remember that I am such a messy painter! It did come out nice, though I wish Rustoleum Brush on Paint came in turquoise or purple. I got some cleaning done and went to get my hair trimmed as soon as the place opened. I was hoping a trim would help me do something with this hair (it didn't).
Cameo texted from the doctors office...Kaylee had a bad bout of stomach flu that bothered her all day and night...she wanted "tay toes" so much! Pedialyte didn't match.
My visiting teacher, Kim Edwards, came and we had a great visit. The rest of the day was filled with cleaning and errands to the post office and grocery store. Dee worked on his garden as well as his reloader. I did finally get to the right time and place for a visiting teaching interview...it was literally in the parking lot of the Parkside church building. (The blessings of being the "temple ward" also mean the sacrifice of being a roaming nomad for a few months...church at one building and finding a place to meet for everything else.) I finished the evening making some homemade play dough.
Thursday - I swept and mopped the kitchen before I ran and did my pool brushing and dog feeding. I also finished a small Halloween laminating project I had saved. Morning was filled with general chores: dusting, vacuuming, laundry. I canned another batch of prickly pear jelly and helped Dee move the box I painted to its final location. I am not much help right now, though. The mosquitoes are just terrible every evening and I get eaten alive. I got the baptism program for Saturday all coordinated and typed, and printed up Dad's conducting sheet with the names of this month's children to be baptized.
The best part of my day was getting texts from Adam, whose cardboard boat sailed into third place at his school race, and Grace's volleyball team won their game! I am so thankful for them texting me. Usually, the texts come when I am missing them...Truly a tender mercy for me!
Friday - I jogged on a humid, 83 degree Autumn morning. Ugh. This time of year is hard: to hot to like it outside, and too cold to swim. (It's never too cold for Dee to swim!) I worked on organizing and catching up photo printing. I usually spend my General Conference Weekend updating photo albums...and I haven't updated in a LONG time. I am going to be ready for the first October weekend.
Dee visited suppliers, so I did my housework pretty quickly. He stopped at the LDS Cannery in Mesa to pick up some more potato pearls for me...we were almost out. He also got a case of rice and two cans of beans. Well, I started to move a few things to make room for the potatoes, which led to me moving a few things to make room for the rice, which led to a gallon jar of dill pickle spears tipping over on the floor and shattering, sending pickles and juice everywhere in the pantry. Two hours later, all the juice was mopped up and the pantry was clean...a bit smelly, but clean.
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| This is how you clean up the initial mess and glass from a one gallon jar of dill pickle spears... |
We went to the Johnson family's house for an enchilada dinner. Yummy and totally fun! Kids gave us a tour of their bedrooms, played piano for us, and Dr. Johnson - he's our dentist - showed us all the projects he has done for their house and yard. It was great!
Saturday - No evidence of rain except for spotty cars, so I set out on my jog. I was totally surprised to find a huge tent being put up when I jogged by the temple. Open House preparations had truly started!
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| New tent is to the right. |
After brushing the pool, I did a few things in the house, picked some key limes,
and Dee woke early. We headed to Lowe's for stone stuff for his new garden bed and hit a few yard sales. It was humid and very mosquito-ey outside, so I stayed indoors. he would periodically come in and cool off and itch.
The phone rang mid-morning and Sharynn, my sister, was calling. After a few odd questions as to our location and plans, we discovered they were stopping by in a few minutes, since they were in town for Sharynn's high school reunion. They came, bearing fresh potatoes from their garden, and we enjoyed visiting for about an hour. They had to surprise Nano, and we had to get ready for our wonderful church calling of Stake 8 year old baptism coordinators.
The font was already being filled when we arrived, so Dee made the program copies and I helped set up chairs. One by one, three very excited children arrived, I gave them their baptismal outfits to wear, and many happy pictures were taken with loving family and friends before the baptism. I love seeing these sweet young children, so excited and ready to make their first covenant with their Heavenly Father!
We cleaned up the building and headed out for what we thought was lunch...when we looked at the sky. Dark billowy clouds and a rapidly approaching storm (Dee said the clouds were full of hail - beautiful but bad for our young tomato and pepper plants still on the counters of the outdoor kitchen. We fought wind and rain, but arrived to save the plants and enjoy the downpour.
This stuff just doesn't happen in Phoenix...and usually not this late in the season.
Many across Phoenix suffered downed trees, flooding, and power outages, but we were blessed to be fine (we checked on Ethan/Cam and Doran/Amber and they were fine too)
After the initial deluge was done, we headed out for groceries, some Albertsons Fried Chicken, and to enjoy the slow rain.
Got a call from Nate while driving that he scored: Not one but two "Mormon Doctrine" books by Bruce R. McConkie at a Deseret Industries there in Idaho. (Searching had been going on for awhile for these, in Az, Utah, and Idaho)
Dee worked more in the yard...It was so nice to feel cool! Though mosquitoes didn't care.
I enjoyed the General Women's Broadcast from Salt Lake City via my computer. I got the baptismal clothing all laundered, ready to return to church tomorrow. The missionaries stopped by for a visit...to see us and to get out of the rain. After they left, we picked up photos at Walgreens and had a quiet night.
Sunday I woke up and opened up the doors and windows...it was COOL outside! We spent the morning reading the scriptures, had a visit from Ethan, Cam and Kaylee and saw their new car, picked up the missionaries to drive to church.
Church was great...but freezing cold! We stopped by Dorrie's for some cheese and crackers before heading home to drop off the missionaries and then to our house. Dinner included a baked potato from Rollin's garden...yummy!
The rest of the evening was quiet...as usual. Dee invited a friend to the temple open house, talked to Doran, and snacked on things he might regret...
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