January 8, 2009
I took Daddy B.J. to the airport last Saturday morning and did a session in the Temple. I had a lovely drive home shopping at my favorite stores. The Vinnie’s store in Port Orchard had quite a lot of free Christmas decorations so I helped myself. We don’t really need more, but this way I can sort some out when I finally get around to taking down what is still up. Actually it is sort of a two person job with putting things into the attic and bringing down our standard wall hangings so nothing will probably get done of that project till after Daddy B.J. is back on the 14th. He flies in about 9 PM Tuesday night.
We had a lovely snowfall Sunday after church was out. I did not return to the chapel for the baptism that evening because driving was dangerous. It melted off rapidly with winds out of the south pacific pushing the temperature up into the 50s. That has led to avalanches over the Cascade Mountain passes and closed all of them. It also caused flooding that closed I-5 . Sis and Cliff had headed home yesterday morning. They heard about the passes so drove up the Columbia and headed north but they made it only to Kelso, WA where they spent the night in a motel. This morning after checking road conditions they turned around and went back to Utah.
The water is running through the hole, which was washed into being last year during the floods at the south edge of our yard. Down at the lake the water is about eight inches below the top of the dock. The part of the rope swing that you would put your foot in is in the water.
I am able to talk to Daddy B.J. morning and night for family prayer and anytime during the day that we want to reach out and touch each other. Yesterday morning with the 3-way calling available from Will and Mindie’s house we called Jernon and sang happy birthday to her. Daddy is enjoying being with family in Pahrump. Nathan is there too. He safely returned from Guatemala about a week ago. He had a great time and said it was a mini-mission for him.
I spent many hours Sat., Mon., and Tues. sewing shirts for Lanis Taylor’s marimba band, who are scheduled to be performing tomorrow night – weather permitting. I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I volunteered to help her. She just wants to cover up the children’s t-shirts since many of them have objectionable messages on them. She provided the material and thread. I thought it would be enough for three shirts – it turned out to be nine. It was a great relief to drop them off at West Hills- formerly Navy Yard City- elementary school.
Now I’m working on gathering and compiling figures for our 2008 taxes. It is a time consuming task. But I’m not a drudge. Tuesday I went visiting teaching with Lavon Willey. One of our sisters is Carol Wamsley, who is eighty. I asked her what we could do for her and she said, “Get me out of here.” She can’t walk very far, so I hit on the idea of taking her to Crystal Sutton’s for her monthly book club activity. Yesterday at the end of my errands I stopped and picked up a copy of the book to be discussed on the 16th. “It is Cross Creek” by Marjorie Rawlings. I read it till I went to bed last night and enjoyed every minute. Today my own new visiting teachers – Johnny Palmer and Lori Meyer - visited me.
You wouldn’t believe the confusion that went into the family gift exchange this Christmas. Mindie mailed the presents for the folks her family had to wrong addresses – David’s went to Debbie and Debbie’s went to David. Then when Debbie sent off the one she mistakenly received Jessica’s went to David and David’s went to Jessica. So yesterday I reshipped those last two parcels. Anyway it has given all those involved something to chuckle about.
Life is good for me. When I get Daddy B.J. home, I’m going to hold on tight. I need him.