Mormon Helping Hands

We were assigned the same park as last year- Beeman Park- surrounding the Senior Center on Sharkey. Lots of work involved and it was obvious that not much had been done since we were there last year. I would really take the entire ward to get it done, but our YM were assigned a project over at a school. As the morning went on another ward came to help us finish up.
Then we all met at EG Park for a BBQ Picnic.

Stake Sunday School Presidency & Wives

Last night we hosted Kirt's new presidency and their wives for dinner. I planned Hawaiian Haystacks and made pink salad, cooked carrots with parsley and ginger butter(melted). Also made a Chocolate cake with cherries and had vanilla ice cream.
One of the counselors called to beg off as their child was ill with a fever that was rising.
We had Linda and Jack Hale and Jacky Joe and Margaret Smith and Kirt and I. We had a great time and laughed and visited and got to know each other. The meal started at 6 and they were all still here at 9:30- then since we all had to spring our clocks forward we said good bye, loaded the dishwasher and went up to bed.- but had to do the article for the back page of the Provident Times newsletter... I had done the front earlier in the day.

Kirt had a very full day before any of this started. He had to speak for 1+ hours to a class at the university, fix Charlene's lawn mower, take Dot and her car for a 25 minute drive and then get it smog tested, mowed the front and back lawns and was supposed to clean at the church, but forgot.

President's Day at the Sacramento LDS Temple

For a few years now our stake has made arrangements with the temple to be open on the Monday of President's Day. The temple is usually closed on Mondays. Our stake staffs the temple and keep it busy the entire day with all ordinances. It is totally cool to be there and know everyone. Kirt and I went in the morning and did sealings and then a session.

Then we came home and changed clothes- he then drove the truck to Shaunika's house where he and Jason worked on the problem so that it will pass smog. They had to order a part and he will return next week to fix it and help Jason build a shed.

I hauled boxes and stuff out of the garage - from the area near the washing machine. I took some stuff upstairs and have some stuff that I need to go through and also got some stuff ready for DI. I was able to make a bit of sense to some of my PC stuff that is in the garage.

Valentine's Day

On Sunday I looked around the Relief Society room and saw the many single sisters- widows, and divorced. I thought that Valentine's Day must be difficult for them so why not invite them to dinner on Monday night. I asked 7 sisters, and 6 were available to come. I told them we were having a red meal and they could bring something red if they wanted to add to the meal.
When I went home from church I started to set the table.
Kirt was in Ward conferences all day so I was alone and didn't need to fix any meals. (or so I thought, but I still fed him supper)
I put the red and white gingham table cloth (I made it when we lived in Germany) on the table, and got out the nice silverware, the china and the goblets. I wanted to have the table look very festive- like a party - but was determined to not go to the store for anything. Luckily, I found some Lindt truffle balls - wrapped in red foil - in the cupboard so was able to put one on each plate. I had bought them for a recipe for upside down molten chocolate cupcakes, I still have enough left as it was a large bag. When Kirt came home he had picked up a small heart shaped box of chocolates for each sister.

I cooked a ham- but put a glaze on it that was a mixture of cranberry sauce and orange juice. I made up a loaf of pink bread. I used one package of the Pampered Chef Beer Batter Bread Mix. It said you can use any beverage- so I used red soda- it was yummy. We had water as the main beverage but in the juice goblets we served a mixture of orange juice and fruit punch- so it was mostly red. One sister brought a red jello, and two others brought different variations of pasta with tomato sauce. For dessert there was red velvet cake and cherry cheesecake. It was a feast and we all visited and laughed for hours. We were glad that no one brought beets- but was surprised that no one brought tomatoes.

Refinancing our Home

Interest rates are down, and we are in the process of refinancing with a lower interest rate- a 5 year loan. Our goal is still to have the house paid off when Kirt hits 65 so we can retire and go on a mission.


Our friends, John and Donna B. just left for a Perpetual Education Fund Mission in the Philippines.

Check out their blog- link is at top of this page on the right hand side.

Saturday is a special day...

This morning Kirt went over and helped clean at our ward building. I did some laundry. He will continue working of preparations for the Passover Seder that the three gospel doctrine teachers are presenting for our ward. He has to go to Priesthood Leadership Meeting this afternoon at 345 to sing in a choir, then the choir sings again in the 7pm session, and again in Stake Conference. We have a visiting General Authority, Bruce Porter- he was in the same mission as Kirt, but a bit later.
I will do an online assignment in my Adobe Acrobat 9 class. I need to send it today, as it is due by 11:59pm 3/20/10. I checked out my Grandma Blog and now Landon, Jordan, Lexie and Bransen had their pictures posted with their new pillowcases. Kitana and Ronan pictures were posted last week. John sent me a picture of Megan on his phone with her pillowcase. Angie is due to have a c-section 4/16, but at her apt the other day her BP was elevated a bit, so they will recheck her again on Monday.
I watched the video "Music America", the presentation by Troupe Cabana a few years ago. I enjoyed all the sections that had Birke performing the most, but it was all good.

Ronald McDonald House

Yesterday, Kirt was involved in a service project at the Ronald McDonald house in Sacramento. He and a bunch of guys from work went there and weeded flowerbed and made it all beautiful.

While he was out weeding, I had to go to an orientation for my online class on Adobe Acrobat. We are using it quite a bit at my work, scanning lots of documents into PDF, etc. I find that no matter how much I know about the "uses of", and "how to do", with a different software- if I take a class in it I end up learning tons more! It is an 8-week class. I am also taking a beginning database (Access 2007)on-line class for the same 8 week period.