Photos are of Nathan Cutie, Wizardly Bryce and Jeffrey the Wiz. I haven't written for four months. I guess I haven't been able to deal with much for most of this time. I let our trials get me down for awhile. Max and I still have no jobs, but we did sell our home. It closes on August 7th. So now we have got to find a place to live. We are looking at two rentals, one which includes a job for me to manage their properties. Hopefully we will know soon where we will be going. Lots of changes: moving, Karolyn and Kyle coming home from their missions in four weeks, Max being released as Bishop of the single's ward so that he can finish his doctorate (seven years running so far), and . . . hopefully we can add in "new job" to that list very soon.
Three weeks ago, Kimberly asked me to come early to California to help her get ready for Bryce's baptism. I went by bus. Greyhound bus. Don't do it--ever! The first leg of our trip (8.5 hrs.) was in a bus with no air conditioning. Vegas was 112 degrees, 95 at night. I had no leg room in my seat. My knees had to go up a little to rest on the seat in front of me. And as we were trying to sleep in the dark, a young man was loudly talking on his cellphone for over two hours. The next busdriver stepped on to the bus and angrily proclaimed, "If anyone on this bus is going to go crazy, just get off now because I won't take care of you, I'll drop you off in the desert and leave you there." (We didn't know why we were going to go crazy, but it later came to us.) As we tried to sleep, he drove so fast that if he turned a curve one way, we smashed into our seat partner, or if he turned the other, we fell off the seat!! Seriously! He honked at any car in front of him and scared us all to death. (But no one dared say one word to him.) Then at the LA station, I missed my next connection because they cut it off in front of me. I waited another hour and they then told me that it didn't go to Long Beach. (But it did.) I waited another hour, and someone stole my ticket. When I asked what to do, they just told me to buy another one. (The third driver sneaked me on. :)
At Kim's I painted two rooms and a hallway, refinished her kitchen table from mahoghany to traditional cherry color (to match her chairs), cleaned all the tile grout, windows and blinds and spring-cleaned her home. Happy Birthday Kim!! We had everything ready for the baptism. It was a wonderful experience for Bryce. For part of the program, Kim played the piano, Jeffrey played the violin, and Bryce and Nat
h
an sang "I like to look at rainbows whenever there is rain . . . " Jeffrey did so well on the violin and Nathan stole the show at the end of each verse. That is where he knew the words, so he ate the microphone while he said them. (Bryce kept poking him when he did it and the congregation laughed each time--at both of them.) Many of Kim's friends and neighbors came to the service and to the dinner at her home afterwards. We had enough food to feed 60, but we got about 30. Kim has some wonderful friends. I really enjoyed meeting them. This next pic is of Tami and Kevin giving Bryce an exciting gift.
Max drove in by himself on Friday and Rob's parents came from Provo as well. We all left California on Monday morning, July 12th to drive through the desert to Utah. Much better than the bus! I'll take Max for a driver any day. We stopped in Las Vegas to visited one of my bestest friends, Terri. She treated us to a buffet and we talked for a few hours. I hope her boss didn't get upset because we kept her for such a long lunch hour. It was so-so-so good to see her again.
Now we are home and getting ready to move and find a place to go.Busy summer. The pic below has three fun boys with wizard wands.Check out my last post if you want another way to paint countertops that is easier, less scary and looks great!
6 comments:
You're so brave! But what a story to tell!
We're glad you're back on the blog world, I've missed you. Kim's place looks great and the table looks FABULOUS!!! Good job. I hope that you're not too worn out. Good luck on the job search.
I don't know how she could NOT be too worn out. Her work on my house is incredible. It's so nice to have a pretty clean house, new kitchen vinyl (put in by my landlady), the beautifully refinished kitchen table, a painted bedroom, hallway, and computer room, and tons of tiny but tedious details, like cleaning all my tile grout (kithen countertops and tile around fireplace), re-caulking almost all of the sinks, my bathtub and backsplashes, re-painting little things like the insides of medicine cabinets, and painting the worn metal in my bathtub edges with a metal aluminum paint, making it look new. Cleaning out my fireplace, cleaning my garage twice, making me clean a LOT (like all of the computer room!), and helping me sort through the boys' clothes and get rid of 5 black bags of clothing!
Thank you mama.
And all this didn't even count her keeping up the dishes and laundry the entire two weeks, or the outdoor yard work she did, like leveling a hard-as-a-rock plot of dirt so we could put down weedblocker & rubber mulch. Or washing all of our blinds. Or cleaning the windows inside and out. My hero!
Looks like a great trip (once you got there). Wanna come in August and get me ready for a baptism?
So glad to hear that you sold your house, praying for everything else to go well!
You've talked me out of riding the bus on a long trip :) I've done a few, but they were with a group, not on my own. I'm glad to hear you sold the house, for the sake of having it sold. It was such a cute little house. And yes, to answer your question, I am related to Ron Staheli, the director at BYU. He is my mom's first cousin. They are the same age and were pretty close growing up.
Loved reading your post. Great bus story! Next time you're in Vegas come visit us...we have air conditioning :)
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