Yes - is really is October 4th! Five years ago today I became a great grandma for the first time when Griffen was born. I'm now a great grandma 6 times over and I must say I LOVE it and every one of those cute kids! Being a grandmother and great grandmother nearly makes the non-benefits of growing older worth it ;-)
This past week started out pretty much normal with the office staff meeting on Monday morning. However, when the mail arrived, it got a little busy for me because I received 29 utility bills that needed to be paid that day. Because the turn-around time for getting a check to vendors is usually about 2 weeks, I need to make sure I process bills the very day they come in the mail to avoid late charges.....so following a quick run back to the apartment for lunch I spent most of the afternoon paying the utility bills. I also spent some time researching a couple of rent payments that property management companies called about......making sure they were process in Salt Lake City on September 21 and telling them payment should arrive by the 1st of October.
About halfway through the afternoon on Monday, I realized I had forgotten to get a birthday card for Griffen so I left the office for a few minutes to get that taken care of. As I came out the office door, this little guy was standing on the sidewalk and we kind of had a stare down :)
We stared at each other for awhile......
and he blinked (ran) first :)
Tuesday afternoon I realized I needed to get up and walk around a bit, so decided I would take a lap inside the church. When I got to the window down by the atrium, I noticed that several of the plants were still blooming, even though fall seems to be on the way. I went back to the office to get my camera and took a few pictures.
Pink and purple tiny flowers - every little (even old) girl's favorite colors :)
When I looked out the window at this bush, I thought it had little blue butterflies all over it.
As I got closer, I saw that the little blue flowers really did look like small blue butterflies.....good thing I took the pictures when I did because we got a hard rainstorm later that afternoon and it knocked all the flowers off the bush.
Wednesday was Mission Leadership Conference beginning at 10:00 which meant we would have about 50 missionaries in the building. I had a medical appointment for a mammogram at 9 a.m. so dropped Elder Ashton off and went to my appointment. Everything went great!!! No signs of lumps or tumors.....I love getting that report. I returned to the office about 10 a.m. and as I was eating lunch looked out the window to see heavy rain clouds forming.
Mid-afternoon it started to rain and has been raining almost constantly since then. It finally stopped raining for awhile on Saturday and today but is raining again now. On Wednesday afternoon we decided we better get a few things set in case Hurricane Joaquin hit us as it was predicted. The weather guys and gals were predicting that it was going to hit the areas around the southern end of Chesapeake Bay directly.....and would come on the heals of what the locals are calling a nor'easter - a storm with northeast breezes that brings lots of rain. We certainly got the nor'easter but it now looks like Joaquin is headed east of us and out to sea - can't say I'm disappointed in that!
It has rained and rained and rained and rained some more. Because of all the rain, even the rivers are rising, especially during high tide! Some of the coastal areas are getting quite a bit of flooding, but we are high enough that we are not getting flooding.
This is a view of the river as we cross the bridge on our way to the church/office. You can see that most of the boat docks are submerged or nearly submerged. The boat in the left of the picture usually sits about 4 feet out of the water. Water, water, everywhere!
Thursday and Friday was lots more rain and trying to stay inside and dry - just doing regular work in the office. The "tattle-tale" boxes have been doing some crazy things so Elder Ashton has been kept busy with phone calls about those. Generally if the missionaries call the telephone number on the back of their ID card, the company can send an update to the device via satellite and fix the problems but it is taking a bit of getting used to.
On Thursday, Elder Ashton received a manila envelope from his cousin in California and was excited to see this.....
...a bandanna worn by his grandfather when he was working on the railroad. His grandfather retired in about 1954 - so this bandanna is probably at least 60+ years old. The cloth is worn thin and a little frayed on the edges but I think this is a great keepsake!
I love the contrast between the fuchsia and green
White blossom stems....they did have a tiny bit of pink in them so I imagine they turn fuchsia as they get closet to blooming.
Interesting flower petals and even purple leaves!
A bright yellow flower outside the church.
Lots of fall leaves and pine cones on the ground.
More fall leaves - some of them are about 4 inches across.
Broken branches lying beneath the trees
And a crop of mushrooms!
Nature produces so many new pictures for me......things I probably wouldn't see in Arizona.
Trees with crazy bark outside a local restaurant
On Wednesday when I arrived back at the office, mother nature had left her own Halloween decorations on the plants in front of my parking space.
Despite the soggy weather and the creepy bugs, we are still loving our time here and the experiences we are having! Happy Fall everyone in Arizona......I hear temperatures have finally dipped below 100 degrees! The best time of year for Arizona is right around the corner :)
Thought about you during that period of rain, rain and more rain. I love your characterization of a nor'easter, as "breezes blowing..." Yeah...more like GALE-force winds, is what I remember! Glad you stayed safe and dry and Joaquin made his way AWAY from where you are!
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