We're going to Africa!

We had a busy and eventful week. Monday we drove to St. Louis to look at properties and see abut setting up a team there. We saw properties with 3 realtors, talked to 2 property managers, and spoke with one banker. We saw about 12 properties in person and several dozen more on paper. I had plotted this grueling trek to the hour. We left Mountain Home at 6:30 and got to St. Louis at 11:30. Saw properties with Peter McKercher and talked to his property manager. Mostly we saw duplexes and 4 plexes with him. We looked at some he was working on, and one he’d already remodeled. At 3:30 we moved on to the next realtor. We spent an hour or so discussing what we wanted with her assistant, Tony, before going and seeing properties. Mostly they were single houses. One was $9,000 and about 3,000 sq feet that needed a total remodel. Such fun to see and such potential… but too costly for us. We saw another house partly remodeled and the house next door that had been beautifully refinished and was now being offered for a mere $289,000. We finished there about 8 pm. I’d been struggling with bronchitis for the last week or two and was dog tired. We finally got dinner, checked into the hotel and crashed.

Tuesday we saw realtor #3 and her assistant. We really clicked with Amy. She seemed to know exactly what we were looking for. She deals with many foreclosures and the banks ask her to look at them and evaluate them for resale. She has a handy-man refurbisher who she’s worked with for 10 years and can take a distressed house and restore it. We saw a possibility with her. Then we went back to Realtor #2’s office and visited with a banker by phone and with a property manager. Then we headed to the temple and did 2 sessions. Again, we had a 9 pm dinner.

Wednesday we left by 7am so we could shop at Aldie’s and still get home in time for Tom to go to work by 12:30. I think I kind of dragged around the rest of the day. Dan had arrived for a week’s visit on Tuesday and Rebecca and Dan went over to work on the house in the afternoon and I watched children. Wednesday evening we celebrated Tom's birthday with liver and onions and a great chocolate cake.

Saturday,evening we had a pioneer pot-luck dinner. Then the Young Single adults went to the Drake’s house for a movie night. We saw “Forever Strong,” a really good movie—even if it was about rugby. The young adults seemed to have a good time. We let them know about our mission and announced it Sunday as well.

Saturday afternoon, Tom finally got in the zip line for the kids. There are more techniques for zip lines than we probably know. It turned out to be pretty high and when we put weight on it—like me—it really roared down the line. The grandkids were a bit timid about the whole thing. They started out at the bottom, just getting slid up a ways. But after we left them on their own, they figured how to hop and ride and finally got the courage to go down from the top. They had a raucous time! Here Sandy is showing them how to ride. Here Tom is trying to convince nervous children that it's all just fine and lots of fun!

Thursday Dan and Rebecca went on a mini-moon and we watched children until Friday morning. Thursday about noon, we got the white envelope with our mission call! How exciting! Kenya, Nairobi! We will go into the MTC at the same time as Sue and Steve—November 2^nd. We are way excited. We spent the afternoon on the computer trying to find out about Kenya. The mission includes Kenya and Tanzania. English and Swahili are the national languages and then there are about 40 tribal languages. Rebecca took a picture of us with our mission call.

Friday was a memorial service for a friend. Tom went to the grave side service before heading to the midway duplex to clean and mow. I had an appointment at 10 am with a nursing home to do a spa treatment with the locked wing. It was interesting. Mostly hand massaging with lavender and a few agreed to foot baths with peppermint and Epsom salts. Then when I was done I went to Doug’s “wake” at their quilt shop. Lots of biker friends there. In the afternoon, Dan gave us a phone number of a friend’s parents who returned from their mission to Kenya three months ago. We called and talked to Bro. Pocock and learned lots of good things—mild temperatures, apartments furnished. Cell phones. Internet. Name brand foods. All the conveniences of life. He got so excited talking about his mission, he wanted to go back. The people sound wonderful. We are so excited to be going!

Here are the children enjoying the chickens. The chickens have provided a lot of entertainment for Marian, Callie and Delany. I think they-- the chickens-- will be glad for peace and quiet.

The blog and I are not getting along. I can't cut and paste. My pictures don't want to move. Blah! And that's how I've felt this week. BLUCK! Nasty cough. Hacking up a lung. The best I can say is that it's not at its worst.

Friday Tom discovered a leak in our water line. We were without water most of the day until our favorite plumber came and dug a trench for the new line. The grandchildren thought this was a fabulous adventure. When he told them chickens loved worms, they searched through the dirt!
Bruce arrived at 2. By 5 we had water and the trench was closed up.

Tom and Rebecca powerwashed the High St. House on Monday when it was raining. We got about 3 inches of rain this week. Enough to change plans for house painting several days. Rebecca took kids to "help" but it turned out to be less than effective. Here's the before photo.

Here is the after picture. There is still trim to paint, but it looks SOO much better!

Deborah left on Monday. Sadness.

Dad continues to work on the tree house. He installed one of the windows and ordered the Zip Line stuff.

Saturday, while Tom was busy painting, Sandy went to Branson for a Girl's Camp meeting. Got a lot of stuff sorted out, learned a lot. Discovered there was much yet to do. Girls' Camp is in early August.

Boring belated news

Skipping a week of letter writing because we are just too busy is similar to skipping church: it sure is easy to skip the next week as well. But we really were busy last week! We had 10 adults, and 12 children under the age of 12, staying in our house and keeping all those stomachs happy was a full time job.

Deborah drove in from SLC on Monday 29 June with Sarah and Steven. Then on Wednesday, Andy and his family of seven drove in from Vicksburg while Adam, Savannah and Denali caravanned from Tulsa with Dan and Miranda. The majority had left by Tuesday, 9 July, but not before we engaged in a lot of fun, food, games, and great times. Of course we all had to hold the newest addition the family, Denali, and enjoy her cute smiles.

Memorable moments include: 1. taking five canoes, eight adults and seven children down the river for a five mile float, enjoying the scenery, wildlife (not sure what is so ‘wild’ about turtles) and splashing. Only Adam seems to have gotten sunburned. 2. We also hosted an open house to introduce Denali to the locals and we had lots of yummy goodies to share with friends. 3. Watching the grand children play together; they really got along very well. The chickens were a big hit.4. Playing the usual games (and I didn’t lose this time). 5. Catching up on the latest family news. 6. Enjoying a home made fireworks display—mostly courtesy of Miranda. The kids lit little ones in the early evening, and then the adults had fun with the wild cascading things once it was dark. Callie, Savannah and Denali watched from the upstairs windows inside.

On Sunday morning, we served the traditional Bisquick cinnamon cake before getting all of us to church with plenty of time to spare. It was fun to take up two rows and the children reconnected with some of the older church members. By Monday, July 6, the numbers began to thin. Andy went back to Mississippi. Kera took the children and went to see her Mom, who is not doing as well as we would like. Miranda and Dan left on Monday afternoon, after doing some more pawn shopping. Adam and Savannah and Denali left on Tuesday afternoon. Wow! The house was almost quiet.

Wednesday Deborah and Sandy went off to do some house hunting with Kevin Darracq. They got through 7 of 9 houses before Steven had enough and Deborah found one she liked well enough to have Tom take a look at it. Tom was busy at the Midway duplex building a deck and stair railings. Wow! He did a fantastic job! He is also back teaching at OMART. How hard it seems to be to make time from his busy schedule for teaching. Fortunately they are flexible about when he can come and teach.

Saturday we went to the lake to swim. The children enjoyed it and we met two other church families there. Alas, it was windy and stormy. That made the lake choppy and tended to blow the children toward the edge of the roped-off swimming area. We decided it probably wasn’t wise to swim in the thunder and lightening and so cut our time short.

Monday Deborah put in an offer for the little house then headed home. Alas, another offer came in that trumped hers. So, less work, less stress, less results.

Substitute Blogger

I suppose you have all been wondering why this blog has been un-updated for so long. And even now, the primary bloggers are still AWOL. This is being done by Rebecca. I got tired of no new anythings and took control. (Bwa-ha-ha-ha!) and I will be doing today's edition of events. I apologise in advance for the order of pictures, and I am hoping that your sheer delight in having something to see here will make up for any mistakes or possible disgruntlements.

So, for those of you who were not here, the reason Mom and Dad have been too busy to blog is because most of their offspring descended upon them and wore them out over the 4th of July weekend. All their children but Jonathan were here and most of the families came too. Deborah and I were husbandless, but other than that, Andy and his wife and children came, Deborah and her children were here, Miranda and her Dan were here, and Adam came with his lovely wife and 5 week old daughter. And you know when we get together, we like to party!

I have put together pictures for your perusal so you can get an idea of what a great time we had!

Here is Deborah and her children, Sarah (4) and Steven (10 mos). We were out on the 4th of July and the big boys were setting off lots of fireworks. Sarah wasn't sure she liked it. It was a lot of noise.

Here are Adam, Savannah and baby Denali. We held and Open House, which was really just an excuse to have a party and have friends come over to visit and munch on goodies.

It was a lot of fun to have a lot of children running around. They played surprisingly well together. Here we have Andy's 2 youngest, Mathew and Emma, sitting next to my youngest, Delaney at the piano. Emma wasn't so sure she wanted to share the piano.

Most of the family went canoeing. Here are Dan and Miranda, with Marian. They had a great time paddling down the river. They saw lots of animals and there was much splashing going on.

Here we have a more refined picture of Dan and Miranda. Miranda called this the Prom Pose picture!

We were able to corral Andy's family for a photo and don't the girls look great with the purple in their dresses?! What a good looking bunch!

Some of you may be unaware, but when we get together, we have some pretty competitive games that come out. 5 Crowns is a popular tradition and we like to hang out, talking trash and playing cards.

Okay, the grown ups like to play cards. The kids prefer to go to the park. I think that Emma here just may be the cutest kid in the universe. Granted, every mom thinks their kid is the cutest, but I have to admit that Emma trumps even my children's adoribility. I think its the curls that do it!

Sarah, Matthew and Delaney are mugging for the camera. They were so cute, all dressed and almost ready for church.

And after church, Kera managed to get nearly all the children to sit for a group picture. Adam is a putz and ran away as soon as the closing prayer was said, so there's no Denali here. I think we got all the other kids, except for Steven though. Such a cute crew!

And there you have the reason why this blog has been neglected for so long!

Hot, HOT. HOT!!!

Happy Birthday America on this 4th of July!!

For those of you who knew our neighbor, Evelyn Sylvan, she passed away this last Wednesday evening in a nursing home where she had lived for the last three years; she was 80. And, in another surprise demise, Jonathan lost his job and is now out job-hunting. Fortunately they are frugal and have food storage and I am confident the Lord will bless them.

Let me briefly recap this past week: Hot, Hot, and more Hot! For some reason, that 7-10 day period during August when the temperatures are in the high 90s and the humidity is right up there, came early this year; this past week to be exact. I was seriously tempted to try frying eggs on the trash can lid (that would have been a little difficult since all we have are plastic ones).

In an attempt to reach my goal of 100 loads of limbs to the dump site before the end of the month when the county discontinues this service, it was necessary for me to be out loading around 7 am and be done by 9 am. After that time, it was just too hot outside to work. As it was, I would come in the house drenched in sweat and head directly to the shower. I have two loads to go in two days to make the goal of 100; after that, it will get burned. And this is what I tried to do on Saturday. I started burning an area inaccessible by vehicle about 8:30. I had to quit by 10; “a man’s gotta know his limitations”. The rest of the limbs may have to wait until fall to get picked up. Reminds me of driving the ’50 Ford from NJ to CA in the summer of 1990 with an undersized radiator; I wasn’t sure we would ever get out of Needles it was so hot.

While Mom was out in Las Vegas visiting with her Mom and siblings, Rebecca fixed fabulous meals, her children played gleefully outside in the pool, and I readjusted to having grandchildren in the home again. I mowed the lawn Monday evening; started at 7 pm (it was cooler) and didn’t finish until after dark; good thing John Deere has headlights. The garden got weeded and watered, the chickens were feed and watered and I tried to stay indoors as much as possible.

Sandy made it home late Thursday evening and on Friday we signed the papers on a ‘new to us’ two story duplex next door to our rental house in Midway.
It has a nice, open interior.

We were concerned that the water line might be under the front edge of the house. We’d been told by the water company it wasn’t. So we proceeded with the purchase, then a week or so ago, they said… well, maybe it is. AKKK! However, people told us and the title company had a paper trail that provided us enough clues to be pretty certain the house was built before the water district installed the line. The bottom is currently rented; now to find a renter for the top.

Saturday evening the ward had a pot luck dinner at the chapel. Not a large turnout, but sufficient food and people to make for a good meal and lots of visiting. About 8 pm, Sandy and I took Joshua and Marion to the college to watch their annual fireworks show. We parked on the street and walked about 10 minutes to find a nice clear spot on the campus lawn. At 9:25 pm the fireworks started with a spectacular show of brilliant colors and patterns that continued non stop for 19 minutes, ending with a flurry of various displays. Wow; we were all spell bound by the popping noises and the bright array of colors. The weather was cool enough to make it enjoyable and we were able to get home without much delay, despite the fact that over 10,000 people came to watch the show.

We had been playing email tag with the Stake Clerk over information needed for our mission papers. Finally today the Bishop told us the papers had been sent to Salt Lake City. Now the real wait begins!

This is the much anticipated week of the family gathering. Deborah with two little ones arrives Monday; Wednesday we should see the arrival of: Adam, Savannah, and Denali, Andy and his family, and Dan and Miranda. All will be here with the exception of Jonathan and his family. We think we have enough room for all to sleep here, although it may be a little chaotic. We will let you know next week.

The Birthday Bash... or the Sib's Reunion

Annually we get together to celebrate Mom's birthday. This time I flew to John Wayne airport and spent a few days with Mom in Laguna Woods. Then we drove to Las Vegas where Kathy and Steve had arranged for a lovely timeshare.

We spent time puzzling things out.

And felt great joy at its accomplishment.

We spent an afternoon singing. Susie also practiced the alphorn each day.

We also went to the Bellagio gardens and to a fantastic restaurant there and then to the pastry shop there. One day Sue walked to the pastry shop and brought back a sample of delicious items for breakfast. We went to Ethel M's chocolate company and walked among the cactus garden. It was HOT!!!

We also celebrated Mom's birthday. And we spent some time just chatting and kicking back reading or relaxing.

Weekly review-- June 21, 2009

A Happy First Birthday to Emma Fox on this Friday, 26 June.

This was a shortened work week for us, since we both left town on Wednesday. We were busy organizing the house in preparation for the grandchildren’s arrival; Sandy wanted to get at least three of the living room curtains hung which involved the final sewing and hanging (they do look nice).The yard needed mowing; there were some loose ends to real estate transactions that required attention; we canned 100 #10 cans with wheat, flour, rice; and somewhere in there we found time to eat, sleep, pack and still be civil to one another. Monday evening we held a single adult activity at the bishop’s resort; we had seven youth show up to eat hamburgers, swim in the pool, have a lesson and play games; a fun time was had by all.

Wednesday morning, we drove to Tulsa; there is a ½ of ½ clothing store in Springdale, about half way to Tulsa at which Sandy likes to shop. There also happens to be a Harbor Freight Tool store next door, I suspect so us guys can do our manly shopping while the ladies buy clothes at ridiculously low prices. Turns out I spent more than Sandy and we didn’t even spend $20. We did arrive in Tulsa in time for me to get Sandy on her plane to LA and I continued onto Miranda’s. She came home from work shortly thereafter and we went to C C’s Pizza so I could, well, basically, eat more than I should, but enjoy every bite ( and I did).

Miranda and I were able to enjoy our evening of visiting without staying up too late (Dan is in Chicago with his parents) and in the morning she took me to the airport so I could catch my flight to DC, with a connection at O’Hara in Chicago. I had 40 minutes from landing to take off at O’Hara; it was a good 12-15 minute forced march from one gate to the other, but I made it. They really need speed lanes at terminals for those in a big hurray; there are a lot of slower moving obstacles in those terminals that make it difficult for those in a real bind for time. As we made our approach to Reagan National, we suddenly aborted the landing and went back around for a second try. After about a minute the pilot announced that they were a little high for the first landing and were going around again. First time that has happened to me. I also wondered if the copilot had been at the controls! I took the metro to the end of the yellow line and Dan, Callie, and Marion were there to greet me. We stopped at Five Guys for take out burgers and fries and headed home. First time to be in the ‘White House’; rather confusing floor plan, but I am adaptable. I was able to get the headrest DVD players installed and working by night fall.

Rebecca had the van mostly packed and so getting up in the morning and heading west was an easy accomplishment on Friday. We were on the road before 9 am and drove for 12 hours, traveling over 600 miles, a feat only possible because the children were so well behaved. And I do like their new Toyota van. We stopped in Lebanon, TN at a Sleep Inn; getting the children to bed was not a problem and we all slept well – with the possible exception of Callie, who I am told, fell out of bed with a loud thump! We enjoyed their adequate breakfast and were back on the road before 8 am. Again the children were fabulous and we got to Mountain Home about 4 pm. The first thing I did was set up the two children’s pools for the children to cool off in (it is in the 90s) while Rebecca was busy unpacking. We drove almost 1100 miles in approximately 20 hours, averaging about 24 miles per gallon. The children were fun to be with and so well behaved on the trip! And it is good to be home!

We did hear from the stake clerk that they needed some minor medical info that we were able to provide, but somehow our dental exams got misplaced. So it appears I will need to make copies of those forms and get the dentists to fill them out again.

Sandy will return this Friday after spending time with her mother, three sisters, one brother and one brother in law in Las Vegas. They should have a great time.

The chickens survived our absence, the garden continues to flourish and the weather is hot. Hope all is well in your neck of the country.