I could watch Elder Holland over and over as he said those words...which I am going to try to memorize and remember every time I get frustrated with someone!
Oh yes: Dates to Note: Emily and Adam celebrate their 10th anniversary on the 16th!!! (Can it really be 10 years... I guess it must be.)
Cathy Boldrey has a birthday on the same day...it was so kind of her to give all of the help she did on her birtihday 10 years ago:)! Maybe you nieces and nephews could send her a birthday card:).
I have to admit that I have one of those days near the end of this month too...hard to believe how old I am getting:(.
Today, Sunday, May 5, 2013 One week since we were at Emily and Adam’s...seems more like months. We get very absorbed in the work of the office and the time passes much to quickly. Church today was beautiful, full of the Spirit; I always want to share so much of what I see and hear with my family...but guess I just need to accept the fact that it is mostly impossible. Much of what I heard seemed directed straight at me...so that is a good thing. We came home after church and broke our fast with a grapefruit and half a banana each plus some orange juice...very fruity:). Several hours later I broiled a flank steak that has been in our freezer in Roseburg for 2 to 4 years (not sure which side of beef it came from)...it turned out very well and we had it with rice and broccoli; it was good. Lots left for lunches or another meal...also good.
Then Dad took my computer and I stayed in the kitchen to make a Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa Salad which we are hoping to take tomorrow night to an Empty Nesters dinner here in Eugene. They had one in Roseburg, at Pat Gausnell’s house, last Friday; we really wanted to go to that, especially since the Gausnell’s will be leaving for their mission to Australia as soon as the visas come...but I was just too tired to think of driving down there and had nothing to bring anyway. So, this will be easier.
This is way too long to really blog, but I am going to try. So sorry to not have gotten it done for the past - is it 3 - weeks. So here goes...but first I should say I got to talk with Stephen, Jim Jr., Christi and Mary this week - and also with John B. who should be finishing up the semester of school and thinks he will be moving into a hotel this summer and working for the weed & pest control he worked for last year. Go John! Oh yes, Mary is headed to California tomorrow on another one of her business trips! Hoping to hear from others this week:). OK...now I am putting the past week's notes here:
Friday, 18 April, 2013 Well...haven’t written anything all week:(. That will make it harder now, trying to remember. I know I have a few notes, very few, on my weekly calendar. We are planning to drive to Roseburg tomorrow evening and stay through Sunday church...
Sunday, April 21st We are driving back to Eugene after a good weekend in Roseburg; don’t know why but I had an extremely hard time getting my mind OK with even going to Roseburg; finially decided I would suggest going to Olive Garden for dinner first, then taking leftovers with us and that would be our food. Dad liked that idea and somehow it helped me get on the road. I cried when I went into the house...but got myself under better control. We kind of put our stuff in and then worked on the computer and iPad for a bit...before we knew it it was really quite late by the time we finally climbed into bed. Got up really late on Saturday morning; Dad went out to get the tractor ready to work and I worked out a breakfast of sorts. After he ate, he had to go to town to get some parts, then came back and went to work, first on the tractor and then on spraying. I finally got around to getting my exercises done, then had a shower and washed my hair. Forgot my blow dryer so had to let my hair air dry - decided to clean up the kitchen while that was going on. Finally got my hair brushed out and up and had reached a point of being ready to go to town. Dad had come in and asked what my plans for food were...then ate a candy bar and had a glass of milk. So - as I was ready to go to town, it was like nearly 4:00 anyway, so I asked if he’d like to go ahead and eat the leftovers then - so put them in the oven to warm and we had kind of a late lunch. After that I did drive to town, went shopping at Bi Mart, then up to visit Jill Garvin, then back to visit with Linda. That visit did not turn out so well and I left kind of sad about it, but not knowing what I can do differently. She is doing better physically; has an outpatient surgery in Eugene to move a nerve from one place in her arm to another this coming Wednesday, but earlier had said she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and didn’t want me there. Hopefully all will go well. If anyone would like to send her an occasional note or card, that would be really nice.
When I got home it was nearly time to meet with the Wimbers; we invited them to come downstairs and they did. We shared the paperwork from the realtor we had gone to for a brokers pricing opinion and sat and talked for awhile about the possibilities & uncertainties - for both of us. And we told them they do not have to decide right away about it anyway. We shared that our plan was to give them the opportunity first; if they ended up not able or not wanting to buy the house, we would share the same information with a couple of other families and that if we did not have it sold by the end of our mission we would move back and list it with a realtor for $50,000 more. Then if it does not sell, we will just enjoy living there for awhile until we figure out something better:).
Church was really nice today; it was good to see so many old friends and feel the Spirit there. The RS lesson was particularly good for me:). Now we are driving across the little bridge close to our apartment in Eugene and it is time to unload the car.
Friday evening, 7:12 p.m. In the air, flying to Seattle, then to San Diego for Rose Elizabeth Manville’s blessing. So - seems like a good time to try to update my notes for the week we have nearly finished. Oh my goodness, the view flying out of Eugene was incredible - gorgeous patchwork of green fields and forests. I love it. Flying into Seattle was kind of cool too - the beautiful water bodies everywhere. I think I identified the ship yard where Seth works, but maybe not. Sure seems like there wouldn’t be too many of those kind of places up there tho.
I got to talk to several of my wonderful “kids” this week...Jim Jr. shared that Taylor, after they resigned from the softball team she was on because the coach had decided to insist on Sunday practices in a not-so-nice way, was invited to join another team which welcomed her with open arms and hearts - so that was a good experience. She is also getting piano lessons from someone in their neighborhood (Grandma Sandy likes to hear that) but it sounds like her teacher started right off testing her to see how hard she will work. Hopefully she survives that part:). DJ is playing baseball and was headed to the Pinewood Derby that night. Haven’t heard exactly how he did, but hope it was a fun evening for all. Sounded like Colin and Tanner were doing great too, and it sounds like Jim likes the results of the changes at his company.
Payton, who celebrated her 5th birthday, called to say Thank You for her present...but got tired of talking (probably too much fun happening over there) so the conversation was short. They were headed to a birthday dinner I think and a party on another day.
Christine has called more than once, and I wish I had a tape recorder or something so that I could remember and repeat all that she said. Medical and dental appointments continue and Christi works hard at keeping up with it all, despite her headaches. Sure wish a cure could be found for those. Everyone at home sounds like they are doing well; they are working on house re-modeling plans and I think all are excited about that. John called and as we visited he said he is going to work for the Weed & Pest Control people again this summer, which will give him a good opportunity to earn and save money. He will move from the dorm to a hotel in Greybull (hope I have that right) for the summer which will be a new experience. Will be able to get a ride to and from his job - so that is cool! I believe school for him will be out mid-May...so that is coming up soon.
Don’t know who all has seen Charlotte’s posting on her blog about her creations and I think she posted on Facebook too - can’t connect to confirm that right now as we are in the air headed to San Diego at the moment. She has also called more than once...more blessings for me:). Seth is on a wonderful 6 pm to 6 am schedule which must make him love his job even more (not) - and which kind of messes up sleep schedules for both of them. Hopefully it will not last too long... and I guess with the sequestering being able to work is a blessing.
Holly sent an e-mail updating us on what she and Steve have been doing...I am thinking I will copy it here for all to see. I would just forward the e-mail, but can’t be sure everyone will get it that way. It would be nice to have an agreed upon single method of family communicating...but doesn’t look like that will happen soon. Here is Holly’s e-mail:
I know I don't keep in contact as well as I should, and I certainly have gotten out of the habit of updating my own blog, so I thought I'd send an email to let you know what's up with us!
I finished Spring Break a week ago. I was sad to go back to work, but on the other hand, I'm that much closer to the end of the year. I've had a pretty terrible time this year due to about 4-5 students. Summer has not come soon enough! But state testing is next week, and then it's the home stretch. Wahoo!
Next year seems promising. I'll finally be staying in the same grade level for once (4th)! I am also team teaching next year which means I will teach social studies to my class and one other class while the other teacher will do science. So that is one less subject to make plans for each day! My school is also the district "hub" for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students - and I will probably have the DHH students in my room next year. I love it because it means another adult in the room (they have an interpreter). Even though the interpreters main job is the DHH students, it's still helpful to have that extra adult.
Steve continues to do well at work. He is very well respected. Any time I stop by the dealership his coworkers have good things to say about him. (Not surprising though :) ). His customers like him too... Just a couple weeks ago an older couple mailed us a sweet thank you note and gift card! I told Steve to find more customers like that!
We've done a lot of work on the house/yard lately. Orkin came and -as far as we can tell- took care of our termite issue. I spent much of Spring Break working in the yard -by choice- making our landscaping look better (clearing out unwanted plants, planting better ones, etc.) And I think we've finally gotten all the rooms in the house painted! It's crazy to think we're already coming up on 1 year in our house. There's room enough for anyone that wants to visit. :)
At church I am still working with the activity day girls and they also just called me as assistant girls camp director. Unofficially, I help with a primary class on Sundays - for crowd control, not teaching. The bishopric has been brainstorming to see how Steve can serve based on his schedule.. I'm sure they'll come up with something soon.
Not much else going on really. I've been watching The Voice because I have a friend competing this season that I knew growing up in Florida. Her name is Amy Whitcomb - She and also a duo on the show are LDS. So I guess that's cool.
That's really all I can think of to say. Steve and I hit 5 years this upcoming week! No big plans, just a nice evening out. Hope all are doing well. Love and miss everyone!
Holly
Good Job Holly!
Mary seems to have settled in to her job; when I last talked with her she was planning to purchase her trapeze-ing ribbons and take them to Provo so that she can work on that stuff more without having to drive to Salt Lake City. The number of activities available in that area never ceases to amaze me.
Work at the mission office continues...always more to do than I seem to be able to manage...but I haven’t been fired yet:). In the air.... We are 2/3 of the way to San Diego now...so I am going to take a nap.
Well...I was really sad to find out that I had pulled the charger from the wall to bring with me, but managed to leave the plug in the wall...hence no finishing the blog while in airports, which was my plan, because of course my battery was just about down to zero:(. So sad.
We had a great trip to San Diego, so grateful to be there for the beautiful blessing of Rose Elizabeth Manville and to visit with Adam, Emily, (plus Eli and Rose, of course) and to visit again with so many members of Adam’s family. We enjoyed sharing experiences with Adam’s aunt and uncle who were from Payson, Arizona as we had a dinner together Saturday night and were blessed to attend Emily and Adam’s ward and be spiritually uplifted there on Sunday. Grateful again for a safe and uneventful trip home. Both trips involved changing planes in Seattle, which is always a little difficult as their small planes are on one side of the airport it seems and the large ones on the other, and the trip between the two is long, circuitous and involves major stairs. I think Dad was happy I was in the wheelchair, because it did make it all a little less strenuous. Got home about 12:40 a.m. on Sunday night (no, Monday morning) and in to bed by 1:00 or so. Getting up Monday was a bit of a challenge but we did it:)
Emily is going to send all of us pictures...of which there should be many! They had quite a party in connection with the blessing and served fantastic food - made on the spot tacos with great accompaniments. Now I am really into finding a tortilla machine like the one the caterers used - you just plunk a whole gob of the dough (masa based) into the hopper, turn the handle and every time you turn the handle a tortilla pops out, perfectly shaped with no effort on your part. And - if you get one that isn’t exactly round or tears a little bit, you just through that one back in the hopper with the dough again. I didn’t ask if you could do flour tortillas on it - probably should have - but was just so amazed to see the corn tortillas coming out so effortlessly after my many failed attempts in the past to make corn tortillas that I didn’t think of it.
OK - here are some pics that Dad took:
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| Kids - there were many! - playing in the new back yard! |
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| The Manville Family - a wonderful bunch! |
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| Our Excellent Chefs! |
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| Look closely at the corner of the chef's table and you will see the marvelous tortilla making machine I spoke about! |
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| Everyone loved holding baby Rose! Hard to get a turn! |
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| Whose turn now? You guessed it! |
Since we were gone for the weekend, didn’t hear much from others so I think that will close the family notes for a bit.
Work in the mission office continues...with missionaries going and coming all the time it seems. One of our Spanish-speaking missionaries who was scheduled to come in May arrived a couple of weeks ago, some of our visa waiters left - although I think we have seven left at the moment, and then over this past weekend several had to leave because of medical reasons - so that was sad. As the “parent mission” for the new-under creation Salem Mission, we have enjoyed correspondence with the new mission president and receiving e-mails from SLC giving us directions on things to do. One of the couples who will be serving in that mission, the Petersons, came into the office today to begin training with us and will return tomorrow. He is scheduled for some kind of surgery so they had to come earlier than the next couple who are scheduled to come in two weeks I think. The third couple will go through the MTC and arrive in June...so we have quite a bit of time before then. Thursday is our zone leader council and I have to get a ton of supplies into boxes for all the zone leaders in the next day and a half. Could use some muscles to help, but probably it will all work out.
Note: it DID work out...but it was hard work. I had all the orders done except the last 4 zones when I left the office (late) on Wednesday evening. Normally I would have taken Thursday morning off, but decided to come in and get the last 4 done. Good thing - because the President called and wanted ALL of the supplies, packages, etc. moved over to the 18th Street building (Stake Center where they have a lot of our meetings). So Dad and Elder Terry worked on loading all of the stuff out and into a van (yes, up and down the stairs) while I finished the last 4 zones. They got it all done and taken over in time to keep their appointment which they had made the day before to be in Salem and were to leave at 11 a.m. to make. Good thing they are both young:)! I hear that Sister Young, when she looked at all those orders and packages spread across the stage, said, "Oh my goodness...we can't do this again!" We are hoping that will hold up:)!!!
That's all folks:)!!!
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