Sunday, December 20, 2015

A Traditional Domestic Adventure

Sunday, December 20, 2015

This past week most spare moments have been spent in the kitchen.   When I realized on Monday that it was December 14 and I had almost no goodies made for our traditional delivery of goodie plates to friends and neighbors, I decided I better start cooking.......however, there were other things that took priority first.

White shirts needed to be ironed.....Elder Ashton owns 12 white shirts and things had been so busy that although the white shirts were washed on Saturday, December 12, they had not been pressed and it looked like there would not be time for that later in the week.   Sooooo, before I could go to the kitchen, I needed to do some ironing.  By the time we arrived back at the apartment, had some dinner and pressed the white shirts, the "older" missionary sister was too tired to make any goodies.    Besides, it had been raining ALL DAY and  I didn't think any candy I made would turn out so I gave it up for that day.

We, as an office staff, had decided that we wanted to give a gift to our UPS delivery man because he is always so pleasant and professional when he arrives.   I had promised to make some goodies as part of the gift, so got out the fudge and caramels I had made a week ago and made up a container for the mailman and the UPS man.   Both were very gracious and kind when we gave them the gift and thanked them for their great service to us - especially at this time of year when we have LOTS of packages arriving for the missionaries.

This has been a week of being invited out to eat.   Sister Fly fed both the Elders and the Sisters this week and she wants to have others in her home when they come so she invited us to eat with them on Tuesday and Thursday evening.   We had Virginia Ham in her warm homemade rolls on Tuesday and  Waffles and Sausage on Thursday.   It was chilly on Friday evening so I came home and made a nice warm hamburger/vegetable soup.....with some leftovers for the coming week.

No traveling this week, so I had to keep a keen eye out for interesting photo opportunities around town.   Once the rain from Monday/Monday night moved out, the days were in the mid 60s to 70s.   I found these interesting houses along the road to the grocery store.''


I really like this cute little well-kept home and yard that I pass each week on my way to the grocery store!


It was a bit of a gloomy day when I drove past this older home......surrounded by trees.  I think the trees surrounding it and the gloomy day almost make it look like a haunted house....wonder what it looked like on Halloween ;-)

Wednesday morning my brain finally woke up and I realized that it was December 16 and I should have processed rent payments no later than the 15th.   Other tasks were set aside while I validated and processed rent payments....took me until 4 p.m. that day.   We are also working on opening up a new apartment for the new Senior Couple who will come mid January.   We will be doing some training with them while they work as MLS missionaries in the Hampton ward so they should be ready to take over our duties at the end of April.  I made contact with the property management to get the necessary tax papers to create the new vendor in the software and am now waiting for Salt Lake Accounts Payable to approve the vendor so I can pay the application fees and process the rent payment for January.   I'm also responsible for getting the utilities turned on, so I hope I remember to do that when I get to the office on Monday.

Thursday was a normal day in the office but was rather quiet in the afternoon and I found myself fighting with my eyelids - they wanted to close and take a little nap.   Thank goodness for a ringing telephone to wake me up and get me busy again :)

Friday, 1/2 of the missionaries attended a Christmas Conference in Virginia Beach.   Elder Ashton and I stayed back and kept the office open.   We will attend the conference on Tuesday in Kinston, North Carolina.   We will take Christmas Letters and packages that have been arriving in the office.  I was totally alone in the office for about 3 hours while Elder Ashton went to see a dermatologist.  He came back to the office and almost looks like a Dalmation with so many spots where they burned off skin cancers.  A cold wind was blowing as we left the office and when Elder Ashton checked the weather prediction for Saturday, he said he thought it was going to be too cold to go for a bike ride on Saturday morning.


On our way to the grocery store on Saturday, I had Elder Ashton stop so I could take a picture of what I have named the Mistletoe Tree - if I had a reallllly tall ladder, I would cut some mistletoe and send it to all of you so you could sneak a kiss ;-)

Saturday I spent 8 hours playing in the kitchen......making goodies and dinner for the Elders.   I was surprised that I was able to get all the laundry done and all the cooking done.....sure did keep my nose to the grindstone all day.

As we drove home from church today, I was surprised to see this bush blooming in the backyard of one of the homes along our route....


...Look at these brave little delicate blossoms putting on a springtime show in December!


I continue to be amazed at the size of the leaves that are still falling off some of the trees in the parking lot.   Some of these leaves end up being about 9" across.


Today as I stepped out of the truck when we arrived home from church, I noticed what looked like a "family" of leaves in the gutter - a large "daddy" leaf, a medium size "mama" leaf, and a smaller "kid" leaf.    Made me smile to think of  the diversity of nature!

We were invited to go to the house of John and Beth Taylor for dinner.   They fixed stroganoff and it was really tasty!   And they have a 12 year old daughter who is just one day older than our granddaughter Addie so I felt almost like I had been given an opportunity to spend an hour or so with that one granddaughter.   It was a nice opportunity to get to know them better.


Well, the tradition continues.....the goodies have been made...

.....And the goodie plates assembled and delivered to neighbors and the young missionaries.


Merry Christmas to one and all!
















2 comments:

  1. You have been a busy girl, that's for sure! Lots of traveling around the mission too...at least this week. Hope a little something arrives in the mail for you before Christmas from this neck of the woods. We sure love our missionaries in Virginia!

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  2. We received that wonderful package from you on Friday. It was so sweet - both in taste and in thought! We have enjoyed the goodies that were unwrapped and placed the packages under our tiny tree. We hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season and know that all of our friends and family in Arizona will be in our thoughts and prayers! Thanks so much for being our friends!

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