May 31, 2015

Another week of working hard to get ready for the summer. I did pretty good in the kitchen except for a Caesar's Chicken dish that your father announced to everyone that it "looked better than it tasted" and he thought he was giving me a compliment. Let's just say that all the sisters were on my side in the ensuing discussion. The ladies actually had an afternoon off and we all went to a huge antique store called Apple Annie's and then had dinner in a cute 50's diner. It was fun and interesting to see what types of things everyone gravitated to. For one it was the vintage clothes, for several the old furniture, one was looking for an old quilt to be her mission keepsake. I loved looking at the dishes and looking for a small tea set.

The weather has been much warmer, but still some occasional rain. The drama continues with the young elders and the wranglers, and there have been some senior missionary health issues that need to be addressed.

We now have eight couples and as I have gotten to know them all I can honestly say they are very special and I feel a love and bond with them. It is so interesting to see everyone's special abilities that fill a need. Tomorrow Dad will start painting the exterior of the portable kitchen. He also did the special wood trim around the windows. But the day they poured the cement slab - it was others that had the experience and he wasn't asked to help with that. We just happen to also have a plumber and another one an electrician.

The end of next week will be our half way mark. Now that its behind us it seems like it's gone pretty fast. It's helped a lot that we've been able to see our family not once, but twice and we will be seeing most of you again in a few weeks.

I've finally stopped looking for new dinner ideas. I have a four week cycle that we will just repeat. I have most of the order lists (shopping lists) ready so that I don't have to fuss as much with those. Tomorrow we are off to Costco to spend another $1000. I have liked their meat very much but have gotten some terrible produce! I will not buy corn, lettuce or watermelon from them ever again. They are usually pretty good about returns - but for produce you have to take the rotten stuff back to get a refund. I'm just not going to keep the half eaten corn cobs and slimy lettuce and just plain bad watermelon around, either smelling bad or taking up precious space in a fridge. So I'm mad at them - there, now I've got that off my chest!

Love you all, Mom