Tuesday night dinner

So, no, I didn't report on the lovely dinner we had last night courtesy of my fantastic visiting teacher, Karen Child. She called yesterday afternoon & asked if she could bring dinner in. This was the day of. She brought in a pan of chicken enchiladas, a bag of chips, a container of salsa, a plate of fresh cucumbers & sliced tomatoes, rice & beans and a fresh peach pie. Mmmmm, it was to die for. The rice & beans were absolutely delicious. As was everything else..

Visiting teachers

I have two fantastic visiting teachers. I know now, though, why I haven't let people in my house.

I made a status report on Facebook that I was having surgery, so Angie Griffeth, the RS president, told Karen Child, my visiting teacher. I hadn't made a general announcement until then. The only reason I did then was because I was going to be offline & didn't want anyone wondering where I was. I certainly didn't call Karen & say, I'm having surgery, now you need to take care of me. Mother was taken care of. Don had 2 days off & could care for me. So, I saw no need to announce it to the Relief Society.

My friend Jean Carter called to see how I was doing. She found out I was having surgery because I wasn't at work Monday. She asked if I'd called my visiting teachers & I said no. She wanted to know who they were. I told her & she called Karen. Karen almost immediately called & asked if she could bring dinner in. The only night we didn't have covered was Thursday night, but Karen is busy that night with the state Junior Miss competition for her daughter. She wanted to know if she could bring it in that day. She called on Tuesday. So, I said yes.

Did I already report on this? Anyway, I told her not to trip on anything through my house when she came. When I was having chemo, the RS brought in dinner every week on the day I had chemo. Alexis Beckstead tripped on the rice bucket when she brought dinner in. I was so embarrassed. I've been pretty good about keeping people out of the house since. But Karen brought a full course dinner & made several trips in & out.

Today, Karen called & talked to Nick before I was awake. She said she & Alice Johnson, her visiting teaching companion, were coming over to clean up the kitchen. OMG! I told Karen I didn't even know where to tell her to start. She said she didn't know either. They washed dishes, emptied the dishwasher, cleaned counter tops. As she cleaned one counter top off, it was covered with mouse droppings. Ewwww!!! I got the Clorox out & told her that 1 part of Clorox to nine parts of water is supposed to clean up mouse droppings. Now, they'll probably get hantavirus & die.

Will we get hantavirus? Nah! We must be immune to it. We have all these house cats & the mice run wild.

A beautiful day

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. We have finally had some yellow & green burn days. It is so nice to see the sunlight.

Today, instead of enjoying the beautiful day, I spent the afternoon at Mother's curled up on the couch, sleeping the day away. Our visiting teacher came & after she left, the fatigue just crashed down on me like an avalanche. I laid on the left side & it hurt, but I was too tired to change sides. The left side is the side where I had the partial mastectomy & all the lymph nodes are gone. I have lymphedema on that side & shouldn't lay on that arm.

I found this picture of our house with icicles on it, but as I look at it, I realize it must have been taken last winter. The shepherd's hook is in front of the bedroom window, the metal storm door is still on the front door & the large front porch is not there. This year, the shepherd's hook is still out on the north side of the house with my bucket garden hanging on it.

The Recipe Corner for this week featured a recipe for Ravioli Soup. I thought it was in last week's paper, so I didn't bother to copy the recipe. I've been planning on making that today because Tuesday is soup day. I kind of winged it. Nick hasn't told me he didn't like it. Next month I'll have to use the real recipe. I get so confused over which week something was published (in The Preston Citizen). Sometimes I'm sure something was published & either it was pulled or it was something that came in & was never published.

Today, I can't remember what the front page story is, sigh, or the front page picture. I'll remember tomorrow when I see it, LOL. I do remember that the Bear River Massacre was lower right hand corner of the front page. I hate reading the story of the massacre every year. I didn't get the page until late & we were really close to deadline, so I didn't read it. I hope there were no mistakes. The anniversary of the massacre is Jan. 29, so there will be a memorial Thursday at 11 a.m. I wonder if my ancestors had to put members of the calvary up that night in 1863 in Franklin. I hope not. I have a hard time going through those river bottoms because I can feel the unhappiness. I've also learned not to look up at the mural in the post office showing the "battle" of Bear River.

EDITED TO ADD: Nick told me tonight that supper was not good & there wasn't enough of it. He didn't get full.

A temple to their god

It's already Saturday again. Wow! The week went fast. This is what our front yard looks like. Water standing over ice.

I worked Monday all day & Tuesday morning, actually until 1:30. I'm supposed to be finished by noon. I stayed an hour and a half to do some research for Rod (editor) for the new recreation complex that the Preston School District is building. I found lots of information over the past year, January through December 2008, on West Side's new free-standing auditorium, but only 4 photo stories of the rec complex. So, I wrote a note to Rod telling him I found a lot of information on West Side's new "temple," but couldn't find any articles on Preston's "temple."

As with most small school districts, sports reign supreme. Someone told me at church one day that Preston School District was building a temple to their god. The analogy tickled me. I've used it a lot. West Side has been working on their auditorium for several years too. They've coveted an auditorium for a long time.

I picked Mother up for her doctor's appointments in Logan, but didn't have time for lunch. We were just pulling into the Logan Regional Hospital when Don-Mike called to see where Mother was. He & Nick had gone to Chester Fried Chicken & bought a family order of chicken tenders to share with her. They know she doesn't get home-delivered meals from the senior center on Tuesday.

We went from the cardiologist at the hospital to Dr. Carlson at the new clinic. He was very concerned about Mother's leg & referred us to a wound clinic at an orthopedic clinic over at the hospital. We went back down to Logan on Wednesday & her wound has to be dressed 2x a day. It also had to be debrided.

On Wednesday, Mother's sister, Maxine, & her husband, Bernard, came down to visit Maxine's "elderly" sibs. They started at Luana's. She had put a hamburger soup on to feed them, but she had visiting teachers(1) coming. Maxine & Bernard went up to Dorin's, their oldest brother, & the plan was to go back to Luana's for lunch. It was getting close to lunchtime, and they weren't back. Luana called Lucy & she said she had a pot of chili simmering & she was going to feed them lunch. Meanwhile, the day before, Maxine had made a big pot of chicken noodle soup & homemade rolls she was going to bring down & share. When she got home from a church meeting Tuesday evening, the homemade rolls & soup was gone. Some of her grandkids had visited & eaten the soup & rolls. Yumm. I told her the good news was that she had something to feed them.

I felt kind of bad. I hadn't made any soup. Mother & I enjoyed Luana's soup Wednesday evening. I'm supposed to cook on Wednesday evening, but I asked Don to call Pizza Villa & see if they'd cook supper for me. I thought that I had time to cut his hair. He's been asking for a haircut for weeks. So, I just got started & got the clippers adjusted so they weren't pulling when I asked what time he was supposed to pick up the pizza. He answered, "7:30." Ack, it was 7:30. I whipped off the hair cutting cape & told him to put a hat on, we'd finish when he got back. At 10:30 he finally remembered that he was getting his hair cut.

Thursday I thought I had to work, but found out I was confused. I have to work next Thursday, Jan. 29. I'll just have to remember that I work the day after the Challenger anniversary. Thursday was busy anyway. I dressed Mother's wound, took lunch money to Eddie at West Side High School, worked for 3 hours & went to Logan to pick up Kim's car & kyped Luana's leftover soup from Mother & used it as the base for meat ball soup.

Friday was another work day & today has been a free day. I'm dressed only because I had to go over to Mother's this morning before her hair appointment & change the dressing on her leg.

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(1) Visiting teaching: A program of the Relief Society that enables every woman to be visited in her home and to receive instruction, fellowship, and needed assistance from fellow sisters. Each woman is typically assigned two visiting teachers who visit monthly.