7 Years Bad Luck!

We wanted new carpeting. We bought new carpeting. We wanted the new carpeting installed in one day. AND wanted the install special of $199 for the whole house. We have so much STUFF that it would be impossible to move everything and get the install done. SO we rented a 26 foot U Haul - the biggest that they have. We got the nice Zebra one featuring Idaho.

Doug brought it home Tuesday after work. We got busy. Mind you, I had been busy for about a week or so - boxing and packing almost everything in the whole house. Anyway, we started loading our stuff. We were making progress when Al Wolf came by to see if he could help. YES! So he stayed for a few hours and helped. Well by about 10 or so we were pooped. Our backs hurt, our feet hurt, our arms hurt , everything hurt. We went to bed and were almost done. We had luckily decided to put quite a bit out on the back patio. Also we had quite a bit on the driveway. And even though we didn't think we would fill up the truck - it was pretty much filled up.

The next morning Doug and I got our bed out and a couple of other things and he left for work. There were several boxes and bins I thought I could move around from room to room as they did their work. NOT! When they came in at about 8:30 they tore into every room at once. So I stacked the bathrooms fuller than they already were.

I CAN'T BELIEVE WE HAVE THIS MUCH JUNK??!!

My long day of standing and waiting began. I could really only stand in the kitchen or in one of the bathrooms. So I spent a lot of my day doing that. Also we had a small table and chairs on the driveway. So I spent some time there as well. By 10:30 or 11 they had all the pad laid down and the carpet was rough cut and rolled out in the appropriate rooms. But they didn't get everything finished until about 3:30.

At about 4 dad came home and the unloading began (we needed to get the truck back by 4 Thursday afternoon - and actually we wanted dad to be able to drive it in on his way to work). This time we worked alone - no Al. And slowly but surely everything on the truck came back into the house. Our goal was to get everything we needed into the family room and living room and I would spend the day getting everything into place so when Shayla - the dog I am dog sitting for 2 weeks - came over at 2 things would at least appear to be mostly normal. And I did successfully get that done. And yes Thursday morning dad took the truck back to U Haul. We have been working pretty hard at getting stuff unpacked. Making it fit like it did before will be tricky.

Today is Saturday and we still have some stuff on the driveway - organ (anyone want an organ?), shelves, end table thingys, etc. We also still have our freezer on the back patio. Dad was called in to work today so I'm not sure we'll get this stuff in today or not. Either way, my forearms and fingers are sore from so much grasping and holding of heavy things. My body looks like a punching bag. I have lots of bruises. But I have lots of work to do so I must press on. I will just chip away at it a little at a time.

As for the carpet - welove it! Especially the stuff in the family/dining room. The other stuff is nice and plush but it gave us a new problem - it is so plush that the bedroom and closet doors can't swing. So all the doors are on the driveway awaiting some resolution of the problem. That was not something we planned for. Oh and as for the 7 years bad luck. I was trying to re-attach the mirror to our dresser during the day and all alone. I had it all lined up just perfectly and balanced on the edge when one little movement made the whole thing slowly slide back and then down. There was nothing I could do. And sure enough the frame and mirror broke - so if the saying holds true I'll have 7 years bad luck. That takes me through 2015. I sure hope not!

Here is the new carpeting. The family room has flecked carpeting. The best thing is that where the carpet meets the tile it looks great now!

The Big Wind #2

This morning I was cleaning up the tree mess. Our neighbor to the north was out doing some yard work too. He picked up lots of the small debris from our tree. He also brought out a hand saw and cut the large brances up so I could carry them around back. So on my first trip out to the alley with an armful of tree branches, my eyes beheld a confusing scene. Out in the alley beyond the big black garbage container there was an aluminum storage shed resting upside down. I needed a quick double take to make sure what I was seeing was indeed an aluminum storage shed. I looked in the backyard of the alley neighbors and think I have identified the yard that lost the shed. I also found a sleeping bag in a box so I took it home to keep it out of the weather and away from bugs and cats and whatever. I walked around to tell the neighbors about their shed and no one was home. So I left a note. It could be very interesting when the garbage truck tries to make his rounds on Monday. Here are a couple of pictures to help illustrate the situation.

The Big WInd

Last night we had a humdinger of a monsoon storm in Phoenix. As the evening approached we could see some good dark storm clouds gathering. We figured that we would get at least a little storm action. When I went to the church at about 9 for volleyball and it was really windy. There were leaves swirling around and the air was filled with the desert dust. The trees were bending and twisting in the wind and I could feel the occasional tugs on the car as I drove. When I left the church an hour later I was pleased to see that everything was wet and that it was still raining. I could tell it had rained pretty hard because the runoff in the gutters flowed out into the streets. As I turned onto our road I saw a huge piece of tree in the road. As I parked the car I realized it was a big part of our tree! As I took a closer look there were several large branches on the road and on our lawn. It was still raining and lightning activity was high - but we did walk out and pull the biggest branches from the road and onto our lawn.

This morning we took a closer look. And our poor tree! The tree by the second bedroom window lost at least two large branches and quite a few smaller ones. The wind must have just whipped by and snapped the top one off. I think that one probably fell down and caused the lower branch to snap off too. The biggest piece will take a couple of people to move. We were pretty luck the wind was blowing from the southeast. The branches could have easily fallen onto our house or our neighbors house had the winds been blowing to the east instead.

Well now I wonder what to do about the tree. I hope it will continue to be healthy - but when branches break off does that let the bugs in and vital fluids leak out? I don't know. Maybe Shanna, our family expert, will know. Either way Dad gets off pretty easy. He got up early this morning and did a little more street cleanup. He swept some debris off the road and moved a couple of minor pieces off of the road. He leaves for work in just a few minutes and then has a weekend outing with the boys to hike Mt. Humphreys. So who do you think will get to do the cleanup? The names rhymes with hairy! Anyway, that is my account of the big wind.

Snow in August?

It has been 30 years since Doug served his mission in Stockholm, Sweden. Some of the missionaries he served with decided to plan a reunion to honor their mission president - President Holmgren. That is the reason we found to go up to Utah this past weekend. We try to find reasons whenever we can to go up to Utah to see our family - Scott, Evan and Shanna, and Lindsey, Rob, and Sadie! Sadie is growing so fast we have to try to see her as often as we can. We also had dinner with Doug's sister Yvonne and her family. Seeing everyone was great!

The reunion was a huge job and fell on the shoulders of a few - but they did a great job! It was wonderful! They had an afternoon picnic when the missionaries and anyone from their family was invited to come. Our family had on matching t-shirts and I think we looked really good! I even made a cute outfit for Sadie so she could match with us. The evening program was a catered dinner for the missionaries and their spouses. There was a wonderful DVD of mission pictures put to music, a memory book compiled for the mission president, engraved cheese slicers for each missionary, and a couple of close friends of Doug's. Most of all I think President Holmgren knows that everyone of "his missionaries" truly loves him and came to honor him.

We have two birthdays this month - Evan and Shanna - well Shanna (13th) and Evan (16th). So we had a little birthday dinner for them on Sunday. They are a wonderful couple and a great part of our family. We had to go home on Monday. This time on the way home we went through Fredonia and on up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. That little side trip added a couple of hours to our trip home - but it was well worth it. The scenery can't be beat! We also had a great surprise while we were there. We not only got to see a herd of buffalo just off the road. There must have been 50 or more. Better than we saw in Yellowstone years ago. As we were there we saw some clouds rolling by and heard a bit of thunder. It sort of came and blew past. We didn't think much about it. When we were driving back out of the park we started to see that the road was a little wet. Then we saw some curious white stuff in patches along the road. The white stuff started to get more obvious and more thick. Until we couldn't stand it anymore. We stopped the truck and I got out and it was hail! About 2 - 3 inches of hail! That cloud had dropped all that in the hour's time since we came into the park. It was just amazing! We were really glad that we had decided to make the trip to the Canyon.
Anyway, we are back in Phoenix now and already trying to figure out when we can make another trip to Utah to see the family. WE HAVE A GREAT FAMILY!!

The Three Hundred and Twenty Dollar Question

I have some friends who are refugees from Liberia. They have been here for nearly 4 years. Sophie tells me I am her light skinned sister who was put here by God to help her family. I have been very involved in helping over the years and continue to do so - through the good times and the bad.

One of her daughters was in Young Women's with me when they were in the ward. She went to camp with us for 2 years. She is now 16 and working at Wendy's at the airport. The problem is that she has lost her I-94 card. That is a VERY IMPORTANT piece of paper!! With her new job she needs to get an ID card to get into the airport and to her workplace. She can't get the ID without the I-94. If she doesn't have the ID card security has to escort her to her job. So when she told me about her problem I got on the computer to see what could be done. Everyplace I looked I found the solution - it was this: You fill out an application for a replacement I-94 and pay $320 and in a short 3 months you might have the replacement. When I told her about it she was sure there was another solution because her boss told her so. Actually she called him and then had him talk to me about it. He thought there was something else easy and fast - blah, blah, blah. It was obvious to me that he hadn't dealt too much with the government - especially with immigration and refugee stuff. So her boss encouraged her to get an appointment with the Immigration office to see if they could just give her a copy. So even though I was sure there wasn't an easy answer, Gueron is my friend, and she was determined that if she asked nicely and smiled a lot that she might get some help.

We went down there one morning with a scheduled appointment. Surprisingly we only had to wait about 5 minutes before they called us to the window. She sheepishly told the lady that she lost her I-94 and that she needed another one. So the lady pulls out a packet of papers that she needed to fill out and then mail in - ALONG WITH $320 AND WAIT FOR ABOUT 3 MONTHS FOR IT TO BE PROCESSED. Hummmmm that sounds like something I said a week or so ago. But she didn't believe me - NNNOOOOOO!!

The funny thing is that she asked this stern uniformed Immigration Officer if she would just write a note to her boss and tell him that she had an I-94 form and that it is now lost. The officer's response to that, "No, I can't give you anything!"

So there you go - I had the answer to the $320 question all along. Yea, me!