So Much Free Time!

 Ok, not really....

but Sunday I was released as RS President.

And it FEELS like I have so much

extra time each day!

However, at the same time as they released

me, I volunteered to start the Ward Bulletin

back up again. We stopped doing it during

Covid and then when we created our new

ward, we just never started it up.

We are finding a large majority of the people

are NOT reading their email, accessing either

FaceBook OR the church calendar on the website,

so there are lots of things happening in the ward

that they aren't hearing about.

(Since we have been directed to limit the

announcements during Sacrament Meeting.)

So.....

I have been researching online for the various

options for ward bulletin layouts.

We want to do the full page folded in half version.

The front cover, this week, is going to be a line

drawing of our temple in Orlando.

Then when you open it, on the left side will be

the outline for the meeting.

On the right side will be announcements,

as well as important phone numbers,

(missionaries, RS & EQ Pres and Ward Exec Secty...)

Then on the back page I am going to title

it Bishop Doodles and I'm going to put some

sort of activity. Either another picture to color,

or a dot-to-dot, or word search, something like that.

The Bishop asked if he could color up on the stand?

Which is why we are calling it Bishop Doodles.

This week is Fast & Testimony meeting,

so it will be easy. They gave me access to the

web page where they have the music and talks

for the next quarter already assigned.

The plan is that I will get it up and running,

so there is sort of a plug and play template

and then when we move it will be easy for

somebody to take over.

Also, I volunteered to play the piano for RS.

However, I'm not going to be there on the

weekends that I teach down in West Palm.

But that's ok, we have another sister who can

take a turn. She sometimes plays the organ

in Sac Mtg - she will just have to hot foot it

from the chapel to the RS room.

Anyhow.

 
It has been a little chilly here so I have been enjoying

hot chocolate and a book a whole lot more lately.

It's kind of nice.

(NEW HOUSE UPDATE... We passed the home and termite inspections

on Friday with flying colors... everything looks to be on target for

a December 15 close! Weeeeeeee!)

Happy Birthday

 Happy Birthday to ME!

Hahahahahahaha.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving yesterday.

Jim and Sabrina came over.

She made REAL stuffing!

Just like we used to make waaaaay back in the day.

It was DELICIOUS!

She also made a homemade pumpkin pie.

I don't care for pie.

But I had a bite of Rod's and I can see what

all the fuss is about.

It was yummy.

But I didn't have a piece.

We watched a couple of Hallmark Christmas movies.

And then we all fell into a turkey coma.

This morning, we got on a FaceTime call

(first time) with our realtor and the

inspector. They did a walk-through at the new

house and we got to see it in great detail.

Looks like the roof might need to be repaired.

But first we are going to have the current owner

talk with her insurance company.

The inspector said it wasn't terrible... probably

last for several more years.

Both the crawlspace and the attic were in

excellent shape. The crawlspace was really

clean and didn't even have any cobwebs!

He was impressed.

It was COLD there today, so they were 

running the furnace and it was nice

and toasty inside.

They DID fire up the A/C though just

to check and it worked great as well.

All-in-all it was a really good inspection.

We will want to paint it both inside and out.

A fresh coat of paint is always a good idea.

And we will tear up the carpet (we were happy to

see it wasn't glued down...) and put in some

nice wood laminate flooring in the whole house.

And then some fun new light fixtures in

all the rooms, a coat of paint on the kitchen

cabinets and new pulls and we will be in business!

(The fridge and stove are both builder grade,

but they look fairly new and work well...

all we need for this little house.)

And, as we were going through, I still

get a really happy feeling.

Anyhow,

That's all the news that's fit to print.

And now I need to go make dinner.

(Rod spent the afternoon replacing the

garberator only to find out it wasn't the problem...

the outlet it was plugged into was bad.

So he put in a new outlet AND I got a new

garberabor out of the deal.)

What's New?

 Well..... when you last heard, we were back in Florida.

(Spoiler alert - we still are...)

But I had talked to some of you about a NEW little

house in a different (better) little town.

I don't know if you are familiar with the story of

Sister Nelson - when she and President Nelson were

first engaged and she was tasked with finding them a house.

She and her friend, Sheri Dew, were out house hunting.

They found a nice one.

When they left, they said a prayer asking for this house

OR SOMETHING BETTER!

I don't remember if I heard Sheri or Sis Nelson tell

the story, but whichever, it really impressed me.

So... I have spent much of the ensuing time praying

a similar prayer.

But I just keep coming back to this little house.

Yes, it is yellow.

So was our Malabar house when we first bought it,

Pretty faded out though, it will need to be painted.

It has a cute little front porch, not very wide,

but big enough for a couple of chairs to sit out

and enjoy the morning / evening sun.

The window you see looking out on the driveway 

is the kitchen sink window.

The pictures on Zillow are terrible.

This is the back door that leads directly into the kitchen.

On the back wall are the washer/dryer hook-ups.

You can see the corner of the stove and behind that

is a closet that holds the hot water heater and furnace.

There is room under the window for a little cafe table and chairs.

There is no picture of the rest of the kitchen, but since the house

was built in 1951, I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like.

The fridge is opposite the stove.

White painted uppers and lowers with some drawers.

A kitchen sink and window that overlook the driveway

(and neighbor's backyard...). 

This is the front door into the living room with a coat closet behind 

the door and a little built-in in the "dining room". 

Cute little stained glass hanging lamp over the table area.

(Needs new carpet... but other than worn, it's not gross...)

There is a nice big window on the front wall.

This house has lots of windows, lots of light.

They all have nice mini-blinds that come with the house.

Only one bathroom, but with just the 3 of us and none of us working

at a "real" job, the only time it will be a "crunch" is Sunday morning.

And it's CLEAN.

And doesn't have a purple painted toilet.

(Ugh, that other house really was the WORST!!!)

This is just one of the 3 bedrooms.

They are all fairly small.

Definitely not enough room for the California King waterbed.

(It was staying in Florida anyway...)

The house is only 888 square feet. 

So you can imagine the size of the bedrooms.

One for us, one for Kyle, and a Zoom Room.

I was sitting on this little back step when I called Mom.

The house sits on 1/2 acre. It's long and skinny.

The yard will need new dog-proof fence.

The little detached garage looks like someone was using it as a "man cave".

The walls are covered in a paneling and there are about 10 electric outlets.

Plenty of room in there for the dogs, the freezer, and the freeze dryer.

The yard goes all the way to the bushes - and then there is a good

old fashioned back alley between this property and the next.

It has some nice larger trees.

Plenty of room for a dog-run.

And room for Kyle to park his machines until he gets a 

shop built at the ranch.

Anyhow.

We thought about it.

We prayed about it.

We thought about it some more.

And then we put in an offer.

And they accepted it!

We have an inspection scheduled for Friday morning.

Our realtor, Tammy, will be there and has offered

to FaceTime us as they go through the inspection.

So... fingers crossed they don't find anything negative.

We have a tentative closing date of December 15!!!

(But we are still staying here until spring)

Anyhow.

That's the latest!

Fingers crossed.

Every time I think about it or tell anybody about it,

I just get the feeling that we NEED to live there.

If you want to check out the neighborhood, there

is a good street view on Zillow.

620 N 4th St, Wakeeney, KS 67672

Aunt Karen

 Today is a very sad day.

We lost our beloved Aunt Karen early this morning.

Karen is Mom's younger sister.

She is beloved by all who had the pleasure

of getting to know her and be blessed

by her amazing personality.

Karen faced a life with lots of challenges.

And she rose above them.

Making friends everywhere she went.

She was a mother, a wife, a sister, a grandmother, a friend.

Aunt Karen will be greatly missed.

We know she was warmly welcomed home by 

the hosts of people who loved her.

Til We Meet Again.

SOOOO Much Stuff Going On

 Wow.

It has been a whirlwind.

We are home.

But most everything is in Kansas.

Amazon has been making a LOT of deliveries.

LOL.

We are learning what we can do without.

And what we probably could, but don't want to.

(grin)

I think we are nearly there.

On Sunday some friends invited us for

breakfast for dinner after church.

And when we got there, they had

prepared a big ol' pile of

kitchen essentials - pots and pans,

silverware and dishes,

measuring spoons and cups,

a potato peeler (I didn't even think about

that one - and wouldn't until Thursday

when we NEEDED one!)

and a cookie sheet!

What good friends!

They were a military family and moved a 

gazillion times, and although they arrived

safely at their new home,

NONE of their stuff showed up,

usually for about 3 months.

So they learned to travel with the essentials,

and when they got there, there was usually

a "lending closet" put together by the

other military wives.

So, now Beth keeps her OWN lending closet.

We have been so blessed!

So anyway.

The past week (or is it two???) has been

a blur of getting back into the swing of things.

Monday morning I taught a zoom class.

Then spent the afternoon cooking, cleaning,

and something else, I don't remember.

Oh yah, I had to run all over town to

get insulin and pay some bills for a 

sister in the ward.

And then go visit with her for a hour or so.

Tuesday I spent the morning catching up

on all the paperwork, and then

over to Staples and Dollar Tree.

Kyle and I are taking the emotional resilience

course through the church and my manual

was falling apart. (Class hasn't even

STARTED yet... really poor job of binding...)

Anyhow, I took my book over and had

them put a spiral binding on it.

Also tried to get my teaching manual copied

so I could give a copy to the lady who

is taking over my Tampa class,

but they wouldn't do it.

It's copywritten.

Whatever.

(grin)

And then back home to make dinner,

and then Kyle and I headed over to the church

for our first class (by way of the grocery

store where we picked up some cookies to share...)

It was a really good first class.

Only 8 people in the group - just

about the right size.

This morning I had a "mini" presidency

meeting (just me and my 1st counselor - 

the others work and I don't have time later

in the week to get together.)

Got some good things accomplished.

Then home to get Kyle - we headed BACK

over to Staples to drop off HIS book,

then to Barnes and Nobles to look for books,

calendars, and journals.

Then to Sams for more essentials

(toilet paper and paper towels mostly).

It has been overcast, chilly and raining all day

(and all day yesterday too...)

Perfect soup weather,

so we stopped at the grocery store to get some

velveeta for some broc cheese soup.

While we were there, Staples called that his

book was ready, so BACK to Staples,

and then next door to Dollar Tree to get 3 mugs

so we can have some of the hot chocolate 

I bought at Sams.

(I found a quart jar of freeze dried mini

marshmallows in a closet! SCORE!)

Home to make some soup,

some biscuits and some roasted potatoes.

I'm going to head off to bed early,

because I need to be on the road by 6:30

in the morning - need to run over to Orlando

for our annual teacher training meeting.

Then home.

Friday I'm teaching the morning zoom

and then hopping in the truck and heading

down to West Palm Beach to teach a one-day

class and do their final exams, so that won't

end until 9:30.

Sunday morning I'll get up and drive

back home again to be here for church at noon

where I "hope" to be released!

(Talked to the Bishop today and no promises,

but he's working on it...)

And in the middle of all that I have talked

with about 400 people on the phone,

solved a million problems,

counseled with a gazillion sisters,

and given a big dose of hard love where needed.

Self Reliance People!

I can't solve all your problems!

Anyhow.

I'm beat.

I'm going to go have a big ol' bowl of soup

and then I'm off to an early bed.

There is MORE to tell, but I'll have to share

more tomorrow.

Or ... the next time I'm in front of my computer.

But, I'm still here!

Whew!

 I didn't fall off the earth,

rather, I drove across it!

In a marathon of driving.

My driving companion was Beau.

\\

He eventually figured out there were blankets in the

backseat as well, so he split his time between

the front and the back of the truck.

And sometimes he perched on the 

center armrest/console just for variety.

My view was the back of Kyle's truck

pulling a trailer with his Cat onboard.

On the way out, I wagged the tail.

Rod led, pulling a car trailer with Kyle's Gulf,

 Jim followed in the U-Haul 

pulling a trailer with my Trooper,

then Kyle with his Cat

and finally me.

With no trailer, cuz I'm a pansy.

We took nearly EVERYTHING we own

out to Kansas.

Rod also had Kyle's rottweiler, Luna, in

a crate in the back of his truck,

since he has a big topper.

Because of the value of the stuff,

and because of the two dogs, 

we decided to just sleep in our trucks.

We pulled into truck stops each evening,

covered as many windows as possible with

window shades / blankets / etc 

and curled up with a pillow and a 

blanket (and in my case, a dog)

and went to sleep.

And when the sun came up, 

we took the covers down and

hit the road again.

We didn't run hard.

Took lots of breaks to fill the gastanks,

(HOLY TOLEDO!)

and let the dogs and people out to

stretch their legs.

Luna did NOT love the idea of getting

back into the crate in the back

of the truck and it took all 3 men

to put her back in there.

(By the end of the trip she had

accepted her fate and all we had

to do was toss in an empty water bottle

for her to play with and she hopped

up into the truck and into the crate

all on her own... thank heavens!!)

It was a little brisk!

We arrived in Kansas on November 1.

We have to pass by the ranch so we stopped there

first and checked on the state of

Kyle's house.

It looked just as he left it.

There were several good hail / wind

storms last month and he was a little

concerned whether it would survive.

But he's a good builder.

Then on to Hill City to check out the

little house on Walnut Street.

WHOA.

It was HORRIBLE.

There were inspection stickers dated 2022 on

EVERYTHING from the faucets to the

toilet, bathtub, thermostat, stating

they were not in working condition.

EVERY window was broken in some manner.

The sliding glass doors not only had broken

glass, but they would neither open nor completely close.

The bedrooms were DISGUSTING.

And even if they weren't, one was painted

a horrible combination of BLACK and DARK RED

with NIKE all over the place.

This was going to be a tear-down and start over,

not "a little rough" as it was presented to us.

The agent sent us some VERY carefully angled

photos that showed a rough, older home that

would need some paint and floor covering.

The story was a man bought the house,

started to renovate it, but was killed in a car accident

and his estate was just trying to get rid of it.

The REAL story was it was a literal crack house.

They were dealing drugs out of the house.

(Right across the street from the local

Southern Baptist church and next door 

to the pastor... cheeky!)

The police raided it, he took off, a chase

ensued, and he was killed when he wrecked his car.

Same story, just a little more detail.

Thankfully we had NOT closed on the house,

we contacted the agent and told him NO.

He came to talk to us and you could tell

he knew he had taken advantage of us.

And he wasn't sorry and would do the same

to the next family who came along.

We will be filing complaints against him

with both Zillow and the Kansas Realtor Board.

Meanwhile, we had already rented a 2nd storage

building in the same facility where Kyle is storing

his tractor, so we unloaded everything from the

U-Haul, there was plenty of room, so we put

the Trooper in one of them as well.

And then headed back to the ranch to

spend the night in our trucks one more time.

Thursday morning we got up, headed into Hays

and returned the U-Haul and one of the car trailers.

Then back to the ranch to say Goodbye and

THANK YOU to Jim for his help.

He and Kyle headed off to Denver in the

Ranger so he could fly back to Florida on Friday.

Kyle thought about staying the night with Jim,

but he said Denver is HORRIBLE.

There are homeless everywhere,

the streets are covered in trash and there are

tents and panhandlers and .... he just didn't

feel safe leaving the truck there.

So he hung out for a bit and then hit the road again.

Stopped at a rest area around dark and slept

for a few hours and then headed on to the

ranch, arriving at 3:30 in the morning.

While he was gone, Rod and I drove around the

next little town called WaKeeney and absolutely

fell in love with the town.

We found an adorable little house in an

older, friendly neighborhood.

Met with a new (wonderful) realtor,

toured the house and put in an offer.

(which they did not accept...)

We hoped to move me in right away,

and then Rod and Kyle would go back to Florida

and finish getting the house ready to sell,

and then they would join me there.

But the offer wasn't accepted.

So when Kyle got back, we loaded up again

and headed home.

I'm hoping the little house doesn't sell.

Because I LOVE it.

But I don't feel like we can buy it until

we sell the Florida house, and I don't

want to try to drive back out there 

again this winter.

The weather will only get more wintery.

So the plan is to stay here,

work on the house,

work at our jobs,

and prepare to move in the spring.

Which was the original plan anyway.

Except now here we are with 90% of our stuff

in Kansas.

We have living room furniture (mostly, we left the

end tables Kyle made us out there.... but we

are using a filing cabinet and an end table

from the bedroom I was going to get rid of...)

I had left minimal stuff in the kitchen because

I knew Rod was coming back, so we have

"some" dishes, had to buy a pot, frying pan,

and some spatulas... but I've been thinking

about living minimally. Now's my chance!

Hahahahahaha.

Been getting lots of Amazon deliveries.

For essentials, like a rice cooker (they didn't

have any at WalMart), and t-shirts and a

couple of teaching shirts and a skirt for church.

It will be fun.

(ask me again in the spring... lol)

Anyhow.

That's a short, update on the state of affairs.

I'm teaching zoom and subbing in West Palm Beach

in Nov and Dec. We will just take it a day at a time.

Thank you to ALL OF YOU for your prayers

of support and safety. We really felt the hand

of the Lord in this adventure.

We are simply putting our trust in Him and His 

timeline, knowing this is the right thing, we

just got the timing wrong.