Another Sabbath Day

Of course, since it was Sunday, we were up early. I had some poppyseed mini-muffins in the freezer that I took out, stuck in the microwave for a minute, and served for breakfast. It works a lot better when I think about Sunday breakfasts ahead of time.

It was windy on the way over to Menno. The wind gusts were pretty nasty. Many farmers have been out in the fields during the last week or so, so there is a certain amount of loose soil. As the wind hit that loose ground, it picked it up and then we had DUST! The wind gusts were localized, so these were just individual little dust storms, not the rolling clouds of dust that mean an actual dust storm. It still wasn't pleasant driving.

Today was the last Sunday before our Interim pastors arrive. Keith Schaeffer has filled the pulpit for us many times over the past four months. It's been great having him. He's often mentioned his addiction to Snickers bars, so this morning the children each brought him one when it was time for the Children's Story. Then at the end of the service, Board Chair Dennis presented him with a huge Snickers bar and several other small momentos. We will certainly miss him.

Saturday All Day

The sun was shining this morning and the birds were singing. It was a lovely day to wake up to. But, as has been usual all month long, by late afternoon it was overcast again. By the time we went out for a walk, it was almost chilly. It was nice while it lasted - we were able to have all the windows open for a good share of the day.

It's always a good day when you can talk with family. We were able to chat today with both Daughter Dawn and Granddaughter Havela - and even heard some chatter from Greatgranddaughter Kahlyn from the back seat.

We've noticed quite a change in the activity around the park. Our neighbor, whose trailer has sat empty all winter, has been here with his boat the last couple of weekends. The three fellows who moved trailers in a couple of weeks ago that sit empty all week, have shown up on Fridays with their boats. We watched our neighbor clean and filet a whole mess of fish this afternoon. I think that many of the folks who come here to stay, do so because of the fishing.

Girls' Day Out

The women of our Bible Study group have been taking turns having a Girls' Day Out with our friend Dorene. She gets picked up at her house, then taken into her massage appointment in Moses Lake. After the massage, it's on to the hairdresser for her weekly hair appointment. Then they get to go out to lunch.

The roads were so bad this winter, I really couldn't participate as far out as we are. But, now that it's nice, I could take my turn. But the way the day went, I maybe shouldn't have offered! I managed to get lost getting over to her house on a Road U, so we were late getting to her massage appointment. The hair appointment went fine, then we went to lunch.

We had a good lunch, enjoying a chance to visit and catch up. When I went to pay the check, I discovered I didn't have my wallet! Panicked, I called Forry who said my wallet was on my chair at home. I was trying to figure out if there was someone around that I could get to come bail us out. While I was on the phone, Dorene went through the pockets in her purse and found her "mad" money. Fortunately, she had enough to pay for our lunch!

I guess it's a good thing I didn't get pulled over anytime this morning. Oh my, it was definitely one of those days!

Koffee Day

Thursday morning is Koffee Klatch Day. The ladies meet over at the Clubhouse at 9 AM for coffee. We've had as few as three, but this morning there were thirteen of us. Pat brought some delicious apple cake to share. There is no structure to the gathering. On rare occasions one person talks, but most of the time, there are multiple conversations going on at once. It gets a bit crazy at times.

The walk to and from the Clubhouse was very pleasant. It was a bit chilly in the shady spots, but the sun was out. There were blackbirds accessing the bird feeder over by the Clubhouse and killdeers along the road.

I didn't sleep well last night, so laid down and tried to take a nap during the baseball game. At least I tried, but it wasn't too successful. At least the Mariners won again today!

Wednesday

It was raining when we went to bed last night and was overcast and chilly this morning. We got a bit ambitious and did some overdue housecleaning this morning. It takes two of us to vacuum. We each do a bit - it hurts our backs - then the other one takes over for a bit. Between us, we get the job done. We had all the laundry from yesterday to put away. The heavier sweaters were it even dry yet, so they'll have to hang for a while longer.

We went into Moses Lake late this afternoon; mailed the 1/2 tax payment off to Adams County and picked up some more nyjer seed socks at Lowes. We picked up a few groceries, then went to Denny's for an early dinner. Bible Study started at six at Monroe House. It was a long session tonight as there seemed to be so much going on in our little community.

Laundry!

I don't know how many loads of laundry I did today, but it was a lot. Many of our clothes from this weekend weren't really dirty, but they were damp. We had gotten caught in a couple of downpours in Tacoma. The last one, Sunday afternoon after the Bull Riding, was a doozy. We were drenched by the time we got from the Tacoma Dome to the car in the parking lot!

It was nice today! We had sunshine most of the day and it got up to 72 degrees. I went out to hang a new bag of nyjer seed in the tree in my bare feet! After the winter we've had, I'll take it!

I spent some time sorting, discarding and filing the mail we had picked up at Daughter Mary Mae's last week. I added up the parcels and wrote a check for the first 1/2 property taxes that are due the end of April. I got caught up with the homework for tomorrow's Bible Study and spent some time reviewing the lesson I'm going to teach Sunday.

Then I settled in to re-read Daughter Dawn and Todd's missives from Bolivia from back in 1990. They were in one of the old files I found when I was cleaning out the study at the church. Shortly after they finished college, they had gone as Mennonite Central Committee volunteers to work as Ag Specialists in Bolivia, where they lived and worked for six years. What memories re-reading their letters home brought back!

Home Once More

We drove into Sun Desert RV Park about six thirty this evening after a lovely weekend away. We left Thursday afternoon arriving at Daughter Mary Mae's in Mount Vernon just in time to go out to dinner  with her and Scott and Granddaughter Claire. Claire was our chauffeur - it's hard to believe that our youngest grandchild is old enough to be driving!

From Mount Vernon, we went to Tacoma where we attended the Tacoma PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. We enjoyed time and meals with our friends Leslie and Bill who drove down from Bothell to Tacoma - twice! - to meet up with us and go out to eat.

As a bonus we made connection with an old friend from our National Rural Health Association days. Rob and Dennis have moved to Washington from Kansas City. They were on their way from their new home in Olympia to a Oldtime Radio show in Seattle and stopped by on their way to take us to lunch at a favorite tea house they have discovered. Such a delight to spend time together and get caught up.

The Bull Riding was terrific. We actually enjoyed the Sunday performance more as there was no concert. The Saturday night show included an eighties group called Warrant. We are not fans of heavy metal - especially as loud as they were! But in spite of the noise, the bulls were terrific. We were pleased that Stormy Wing won.

Wednesday Project

My self-imposed task today was to finish cleaning out the pastor's study at church. Linda came to help. She is planning to paint, so we took down shelves, pictures, etc. We went though the files I didn't get to last week and did a lot sorting and discarding of stuff. We got rid of many out-dated papers and empty boxes. Then we moved the desk and file cabinets out into the sanctuary so they would not get in the way of the painting.

When we finished in the study, we took a load out to the dumpster, then went over to look at the new windows being installed in the parsonage. The contractor started last Monday and has many of them finished. They are looking nice!

Forry and I headed back into Moses Lake and went to Denny's for dinner before it was time for our Bible Study class over at Monroe House. It's been a couple of weeks since we've met due to Holy Week and I missed a session due to a Board meeting, so it was good to visit with everyone.

Home Day

Sometimes it becomes important to just stay home. Seems like we haven't had a quiet day for a while, so today was it. I finished laundering Forry's jeans and sweatshirt from our visit to the farm plus a load of underwear.

It rained again during the night and was overcast this morning. Then the clouds burned off and there was a bit of actual sun. Next it got windy and a bunch of very black cumulonimbus clouds startd coming over. We began to hear thunder rumblings that came closer and closer until they were right overhead. And it poured! Great big drops of rain and even a bit of hail! About fifteen minutes or so later, it was all gone and the sun was shining again. It's been a long time since we've been in a thunderstorm.

I grilled a steak for dinner to split with Forry along with some dressing. I had bought a jar of pickled asparagus at the Mercantile. I served some spears with dinner, but they were so hot that neither of us could eat them. I think my brother is going to be gifted with the rest of the jar!

Monday, Monday

I spent the morning on the telephone. Everyone I talked with was in a very talkative mood! I got quite a few things taken care of though.

We headed into town in the early afternoon for a much needed shopping trip. We stopped at Bob's Cafe for brunch as we were totally out of breakfast food at our house. Then it was a round of stops at Lowes, the Posr Office, and the grocery store.

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike grocery shopping? My aversion is certainly getting worse.  It was exceptionally bad today as we haven't really stocked up for a while. Then we had to come home, haul it into the RV - and put it all away! Yuck!

At least we had leftover asparagus quiche and ribs, courtesy of Sister Sherry, to look forward to for supper...