The Sister Missionaries

The Sisters came over to show us how cook fish.

A few weeks ago when the sisters arrived on a night I found myself short of time, I'd ask them as they walked in the door who knew how to cook fish.  (The frozen package indicated you could cook it up in minutes).   It was great!  Those three sisters had the fish on the table in minutes and it tasted great!  So this night I asked them to come back when I could watch what they were doing.  Only two of them showed up because the other sister got transfered to the Concord First Ward.  Luckily for me the fish cooking sister is still in our ward!  The meal was great and the fish was cooked two ways.

Sister Brati and Sister B  marinating fish and cooking broccoli alfredo

I love Sister B's smile and her willingness to work hard.  She is from Denmark and really knows how to b e a good missionary.  She gives us challenges and encouragemnet every time we see her. 

To have wonderful fish, you really need someone who has spent a life cooking and eating it.

Sister Brati comes from south of Fiji and knows her stuff.  She an whip up fish in minutes that tastes sooo good!

What a great guy!

Jeffrey knows I love lights and he took the time to put them up early this year.  I really appreciate all my family and their thoughtfullness and care.

It's here!

I was afraid the leaves would all fall of the trees in drab brown or withered, faded green.  But no!  Fall in all it's colorful, glorious, majesty has come to Concord to give us all delight in the season!

I'm not sure why it was so late, just thankful it came!

Food for the soul.

"The best room in the house..."

Anthony Durst did an outstandingly wonderful job on our bathroom renovations! We could not be happier and of course everyone wants to use it.

Here is when the bathroom was just about done.  The shower is deeper and and has this great bench and a deep soap dish.  You can't see but the shower actually showers on your head instead of splashing into your face - even Michael over 6 foot is covered.

Comparing this photo when Anthony and his friend were ripping out the walls and floors - you can see the 4 inch wall that covered a vent from the water heater (right hand side at the back), Anthony was able to vent it out the side of the house.  So this freed up space.  The whole bathroom feels much bigger - we can fit two people comfortably in it at the same time. (If we wanted....) That wasn't really possible before. 

You can't see the most important work that was done.  I'd ask Anthony to take care of some problems and he tore out all the walls and floors and addressed the drainage problems and found out about some electrical ones and re-plumbed the pipes and wired the whole thing along with the water heater in the garage and brought it up to code too.   He also moved the toliet over a few inches.  Now everything inside and outside the walls are neat, tidy and functional.

Isn't this lovely?  I love the colors (helps that I picked them out!) and the high lines -- it feels good!

 This feels so good to have such a nice room in our house.

 So now I just need to move into Rachel's room.........and then onto...........the next bedroom.....and you know there are two bathrooms downstairs.........and the kitchen.........

The Tale of Two Cats

Going to the vet is always.....fun.
Tuesday was really.....fun.

Just look how calm Sarabi ususally is...too bad she's so canny....

When the cats came in for chow on Monday night, we pretended we didn't know why they were meowing and ignored their requests to go back outside. Hey it was Halloween and who knows what could have happened.  Jeffrey got up early to work on his computer and got to listen to them for a few hours around 3 am.

Odysseus - pretty bold when he knows Sheila is tethered.

 In the morning I picked up Odysseus, covered his eyes and put him in a cardboard carrier quickly shutting it up.  It was an old carrier and had been left out in the garage so it was a little weathered.  Sarabi had been at the front door but peeking around the corner she knew what was up and took off for parts unknown in the back of the house.  I asked Rachel and Michael to help me corner her in whichever room we could find her.  Rachel found her and we all ran into that room and shut the door. Trapping her in a corner I scooped her up and came back into the kitchen to find Odysseus had busted his head through the soft  box, so I pushed his head down back into the box while juggling a scrambling Sarabi.  Quickly hiding her eyes and putting her in the other cardboard box and then  pushing the other cats head down so he wouldn't rip out.  Rachel tryed to put strapping tape over the hole but now he was on a roll and ripped that box up and slipped through another slit he tore in the box to go running back through the house.  Luckily most of the doors were shut.  I picked him up by the scruff and closepinned him in a towel with just his head showing.  Then Michael drove to school and when he got out, I slipped over to the drivers seat and set Odysseus on the seat.  Of course he slipped out of the towel and explored the car.  He was calm when he could see where we were going.    In fact both cats were well behaved and nothing untoward happened at the vet's office.  Still....
I like to have .... fun only once a year.