Almost September

 At the end of August,

Mike and I attended the SUU Emeriti Steak Fry. 8/26/2024.  Fun visits with former co-workers and many good folks. We walked there. It was at the church pavillion down by the freeway overpass. Mike can WALK!!! He does three mile walks around the campus fairly frequently these days.

We attended the temple, just Mike and I on Friday the 30th. So close. So convenient. 

I have a new calling at Church. I'm First Counselor in the new Relief Society Presidency. I'm over the activities. We have had our "passing the torch" meeting with the out-going presidency, and one new Presidency meeting. There's ministering, activities, visiting the sisters, finding people to accept new positions-- the ones we vacated in RS. It will be busy!

Last week on Friday, 8/23/2024,we went to the Temple with Mom for an Endowment session...on THE WINDIEST day ever. It about blew her away on the way back to our car. We had to hold on to her!! She enjoyed this time WAY better than her last Temple experience. And she even forgot her hearing aids!

The pumpkins are ORANGE!

Other things  in the garden are slowing down, but still producing

I've ushered four times at Shakespeare and go again tonight( Saturday 8/31/2024), then have only two more assignments and I'm done!

Eric and Matt came on Tuesday (8/27/2024) afternoon to see "Silent Sky". I had ushered for that performance and really liked it, so they both had Tuesday off and came for lunch and the play. It was a nice visit. They were nice and took Mike, too. Well, they all used MY vouchers.

I made a trip to the Iron County Extension  Office to see what could be gone about my peaches that have split pits. Just use more consistent watering. I'll try, but ...oh well. It's disappointing because I cannot give them away and it's SOOoo  hard to preserve them that way! 

I just spend a lot of time in the kitchen it seems. All week. I made and froze corn, stuffed peppers, took dinner to Neumann's who's young adult daughter has been in ICU in St. George for nearly two weeks. I've made more apple juice. Made a big batch of cole slaw, a couple of apple crisps...just a lot of stuff to fix, preserve and prepare.

Our Jonathan Apples are doing well.

Tomatoes only ripen about three at a time, DAYS apart! So frustrating.

The leaves on these cabbage plants are so big!

Oh! I did a "garden exchange" with Emily Dean (8/28/2024) from SUU. She grows great herbs, so we swapped. I'd made some really yummy jalapeno poppers for the first time ever that day. Even Mom likes them. So I threw a few of those in with Emily's vegetables. I didn't even know it was her birthday. Bonus! 

I went with Mike to his final post op visit (8/28/2024) with the orthopedic surgeon. His shoulder is excellent. He's even gone target shooting a couple of times in preparation for the upcoming elk hunt trip in October.

We played games one night ( 8/28/2024) with the Larson's. Brooke and Dale are so funny. Dale won at Golf, but I won at Phase Ten Dice. Good treats. 

Last Saturday, (8/24/2024) Mike and I drove to Enterprise for the Corn Festival and bought corn. I froze some but we've enjoyed it fresh lots. And shared some.

And all that was just in a week's time, pretty much. Crazy. Add in lots of phone calls to follow up with David's pre-surgery needs and it's no wonder I  need a nap. (Well, that and I stay up WAY too late at night.) Mike and I watched a couple of movies on BYU TV this week, too. "The Ultimate Gift" and sequel(s).

Pumpkins!! Apple Juice and a Fire...

 So excited for these beautiful squash! There are about SEVEN. Very large pumpkins!!

They are BIG!!

Baby ones, too. They may not turn orange in time.

Strange things going on out back...

It's NOT a grave. It's a pit to bury the masses of 

Rotten fruit falling off the neighbors tree onto our back yard. And the pulled -up pea plants. Yep, they are finally finished. Mike pulled them up for me. I still have green beans ( slowing down), cucumbers, tomatoes, raspberries, peppers, cabbage. 

Yesterday I made chili rellanos for our lunch. Yum!

SOME of the windfall apples from Levi's house-- an early apple-- were picked up, cleaned off, cut up and juiced with my electric Sunbeam juice extractor. HOURS later, I got way more than I thought I would. They need to be blended together and frozen until apple season to be blended with all the other apple juice.

I got the time wrong on our ward part out at the OASIS water park this evening. We drove out there hours too early. I don't know why I had it in my calendar wrong.  And we saw a fire! It appears to be by Summit, Utah. 

Suspicious -looking "clouds".

That were NOT clouds!!

At least the extra time gave me a chance to BLOG, rest and put my feet up after juicing for so long.😊

Our ward party starts at 6, not 4. 

Trivia reward

 Mike and I like to play question of the day with our Google device in the kitchen. Her name is alexa. :-) 

We have been watching our points accumulate and get larger and larger. Katie and Casey gave us this device about 3 and 1/2 years ago. I don't think we started in immediately doing the question of the day, but it's pretty consistent for us nowadays. I decided we needed a reward when we reached a certain milestone. Today was the day that we reached that milestone of 4,000 points. So we took ourselves out to eat at milt's stage stop up the canyon. Yum yum. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of our lovely food before we ate it, so here is a picture of our lovely empty plates. Yes, it was good. 

We also thoroughly enjoy the busy hummingbird feeder outside the window by our table. 

Sunday August 18, last day in Texas

 Dave and I attended the Springtown ward. Bishopric members greeted us. Nice meeting. David was thoroughly entertained by three kids sitting in front of us.  We even stayed for Sunday school class.

The lady who taught the SS class last name was Zufelt. My current bishop's name is Zufelt. David's bishop is a Heaton. Heaton's settled the Alto area here in Southern Utah. 

I'm glad we went, met a few folks. I will reach out to the bishop soon about ministering Brothers for David. It may be Tingey's, but they don't attend Church anymore due to health reasons.

After church nap, pizza for lunch/ dinner, we took a ride to the Senior Center, but it was filled with folks attending a private birthday party. " Only " a 70 year old. That's how old David will be on Wednesday. We did not really do anything special to celebrate, darn it.  But we did have a nice time visiting and relaxing, going over his eye surgery pre- surgery instructions. He really needs a helper. A driver. A reminder. A housekeeper. A yard guy. A carpenter.  Although, he did get that second bathroom toilet placed successfully.

Time to fly home that evening. Glad I allowed plenty of time as the car rental return took an hour. The remote parking shuttle took close to 45 minutes to get there ( instead of 10 minutes as expected). I had some tummy troubles, so was glad for extra time in bathrooms and STILL had to stink up the airplane toilet. :-/ 

Mike got me at the Las Vegas Airport ( another 15 minute wait for him as his phone had died and caused him much complications, poor fellow). We were home shortly after 4 am. I got to sleep in until 9:30, but Mike had to go to PT about 8:45. I did snooze on the plane, so I'll probably be okay for most of the day.  Maybe. Until I have a nap attack.

I told Mike that those 5 1/2 days of that trip felt like two weeks of being gone. I think it was because we've been away from each other about two weeks, with just a day or so overlap in between trips and much busy-ness. There were visitors in our home while Mike was away, and visitors in our home while *I* was away. Crazy, busy times!!

And, yes. It was hot. His back porch thermometer said about 107 at 8:30 am in Sunday. 

More time in Texas

 Dave fixed breakfast for us, we watched TV. We shopped at Bealls. Found nothing.

We shopped for groceries. 

We visited the Tingey's for about an hour.

David's Albertsons has lots of flowers. Check out the yellow rose of Texas!

Then I needed a nap😊

Dinner with the Michael Jaixen cousins.

Mike Jaixen is my first cousin, Aunt Sue's son.

Made it to Dave's

 

Cracked window on the way.

Milly Came!!!

 She came!  She came!!

Oh, it was so fun

 A whole day of eating and visiting and more visiting.

Looking at yearbooks, sharing our favorite things, showing pictures, bragging on grandbabies, sympathizing with sorrows.

Milly brought ingredients for and made Taco salad. 

Another gorgeous sunset on the lake.

The moon reflecting on the water. 

A kayak was supposed to have been here for use. I might have tried it in the very murky water; however, I never found it. Nor the hair dryer.

Fifty Plus Years of Friendship

 Mike drove me to Las Vegas Airport on (very Early) Wednesday morning, August 14. Reunion time! I've been out of high school for FIFTY years!!

Milly was going to pick me up at the airport, but she got sick, poor dear. So on my way to the airport I made other arrangements for a way to get to our vacation rental on Lake Bob Sandlin. Smart phones and modern technology. What a blessing!!

Safe arrivals for me, Sandy and Bonnie. 

A big talk fest! A lovely dinner that Sandy had prepared and brought. A lovely sunset. A lovely home, well- equipped with all the amenities. It's a great location. Kind of far away from home, but so glad I came. So sad that Milly is missing it☹️.

Check out this GORGEOUS trifle Sandy made!!!

The neighboring dock has a slide. 

So does ours! Icky water. I don't like swimming where you can't see what's on the bottom. 

It's such a nice location.

And it was 100 degrees yesterday.