The Lord's Tender Mercies

     In 2000-2001 Merle and I served an office mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  In September we moved into an apartment that the previous missionaries had occupied on the 8th floor of a 16-story apartment building.  There were some features that we liked but several we definitely didn't like. 
     First, was the construction on the street below our balcony for a new subway station.  The incessant pounding would start each morning around 6:00 a.m. and go all day until 10 or 11 p.m.  Then there was the difficulty in getting our groceries from the underground parking garage and up to the 8th floor, and down the hall to our apartment.  It took both of us, and we could only buy as much as we both could carry.  One time Merle dropped me off at the front door of the apartment building while he drove around to park the car.  I found myself pushing grocery sacks across the lobby floor to the elevator, then trying to keep the elevator door from closing while I pulled in more sacks.  When I got to the 8th floor I had to reverse the procedure then push the sacks to our apartment door.  We could live with that after changing our method, but we also disliked the fleas that jumped off other tenants' dogs on to the floor of the carpeted elevator, and onto my legs, since I almost always wore skirts while serving as a missionary.
     I have "bad knees" and worried about having to climb up or down eight flights of stairs if the power went off.  (It did once).  The final straw, however, was the cigarette smoke that came up through the bathroom vent into our bathroom.  We had to keep the door closed so it didn't permeate the whole apartment.
     By November we decided that we needed to move out of that apartment.  Since we were serving a mission we needed to spend most of our time during business hours at the mission office.  Landlords in Toronto only show apartments from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.  They will not even pick up their phones on evenings or weekends.  We had very limited time for looking at apartments.  Landlords also want to see you in person before they will even do a credit check., and almost all apartments are rented on a year's lease.  Merle, being incharge of the missionaries' apartments, knew the problems.  We started praying about this and asked for the Lord's help.
     First we learned about another apartment that met our price range, and we weren't required to sign a year's lease (since we wouldn't be there that long.)  It was located on a corner of the second floor (fewer neighbors making noise, foreign cooking smells or smoking next door).   No pets were allowed in the building (no fleas in the elevator).  Although there was traffic noise, it was not close to the subway line so no pounding.  We got underground parking again--a must during winter.  That was our needs, but the Lord also provided tender mercies for some of our wants that we didn't have to have, in the form of a pine tree outside our balcony, which reminded us of the fir trees at home, and carpeting throughput the whole apartment.  Almost every apartment I had visited in Toronto had wood parquet flooring--but I loved carpeting and that was in this apartment.  And, there was a cute little black squirrel in the yard we could watch from our balcony.  It almost made up for the homesickness I experienced!
     We had a few kinds of tests in the form of harassment from a new landlord, for the last two or three months of our mission, but it was worth it!

     NOW we come to January 2010.  We had visited Mesa, Arizona and St. George, Utah in the previous two years.  We wanted to move to a warmer climate during the winters so we were evaluating those places.  When one of my sons moved his family west of Phoenix we went down for a visit in March 2009.  In January 2010 we went back again.  This time we came during what must have been the biggest monsoon of the century.  There was flooding everywhere.    Our purpose was to buy a home.  We had a real estate salesman show us several possibilities, but it just didn't feel right.  One problem was paying for expenses to keep up two properties.  It turned out to be a fact-finding mission.  We decided that Merle should go back about the end of March, when the part timers would be leaving.  By then we had decided that we needed a double-wide manufactured home in a gated community for security purposes.  We had also learned what kind of areas would flood and to avoid them.
     Before our January trip we had applied for a home equity line of credit at a big bank we did business with, for $100,000.  For various reasons such as a salesman who was home sick for a week, and red tape at the office doing the approvals, plus the terrible times the banks were having getting loans approved because of the economy, our paperwork got delayed and it was almost time for Merle to fly back to Arizona.  So, we went to our credit union, applied for an home equity line of credit for $50,000 and were approved in two days.
     When Merle got to Arizona he looked on Craigslist and found one that met most of our wants and needs including our price.   He found a great place in the second one he looked at. It had 1900 square feet, including four bedrooms and two bathrooms, family room, kitchen, dining room and laundry.  It had only two steps for me to climb up.
     Here come the tender mercies:  It had rock landscaping--Merle hates yard work.  It had two sheds so he can do his furniture refinishing, and both a shade tree and an orange tree!  It was in his price range and he bought it for $50,000.  Even the park rental fee was affordable.  When he came back home we started pulling in our assets and got them up to $45,000 without depleting everything.  We only needed to  put $5,000 on the loan, which kept our monthly payments affordable.  We sold a stock and a mutual fund and it was the best time during the spring that we could have picked.  Our goal is to have the $5,000 paid off in a year and be debt free.  Then, Merle found a friend from up here who offered to drive his truck and enclosed trailer down to Arizona with a load of our things, and come back with a load of things for his son who was moving to Washington.  Merle bought the gas, helped drive, and saved a lot on moving expenses.
     I see this move as something positive.  Although my son may only live there for another year or two, we will enjoy them while they are still there, but won't be so close that we won't spend time developing other friends.  Besides, with four bedrooms we expect we'll have other family and friends come for visits. Our health will improve in a warmer climate too.  I like to think of it as going on a mini-mission each winter.  We may do work for humanitarian needs, or family history, or something else, but I do not expect to feel as homesick this time.  It will be a new adventure for us.  And, as long as Merle can go white-water rafting in the summers, we will have a home in the Northwest too, but we plan to sell the one we presently have because it is too big and we need to downsize.  By the way, we are looking for a reliable, dependable, neat, house-sitter such as a student, for the winter months.
     Some of our happiest memories are in Toronto, and we will now add Arizona.
    

We're Becoming Snowbirds!

Here are a few pics of the double-wide manufactured home that we purchased in Peoria, AZ (northwest of Phoenix).   Sorry but I deleted some pictures so this is the best that are left.  It has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths,1900 square feet, a fireplace and two storage sheds.  It is in a gated community called Peoria Polynesian Village, which has a clubhouse and outdoor pool.  We also have a shade tree and an orange tree!  It is about five miles from where the new LDS Temple will be built near Phoenix, plus good shopping area.  It is also about 25 miles northeast of Buckeye, where Mike lives.  And big plus it fit our price range and the monthly park rental fee price range.

New Experience

     Yesterday I had a first-time medical procedure.  All my life I dreaded the thought of having my eyes operated on, but I found out that cataract surgery ain't what it used to be.  I told myself in the morning that it probably won't be as bad a root canal surgery, and I survived that! 
     So about 1:30 pm I entered the clinic with Merle at my side.  They wanted him to stay rather than leave and come back to get me later.  The nurse and I walked down the hallway past several cubicles which had a hospital gurney type bed and curtains across the end of the occupied cubicles.  A man who left the waiting room 10 minutes before me was in the one next to where i was escorted to.
     After verifying that I knew what they were going to do for me and which eye, the nurse put a permanent marker arrow above my right eye.  She hooked me up to a blood pressure monitor (which bothered me more than the whole rest of my experience), checked my blood sugar, and put the first of a series of drops into my right eye.  They brought me pillows to go under my knees and both arms, and a blanket to keep me warm.  The first was an antibiotic.  Next came an I.V, into my right arm (the blood pressure monitor automatically inflated on my left arm every five minutes).  The male anesthetist came in and intorduced himself.  Since I wasn't able to wear my glasses the woman surgeon came in next but I couldn't recognize her from when I had seen her at my pre-op appointment a month ago.  I caught on right away when she asked if anything was different.  I had a blank look and said, "Different than what?"  She replied, "Different from the last time I saw you."  "No, I can't think of anything."  "Good."  I was wheeled around the corner and into the operating room.
     The anesthesia wasn't supposed to knock me out but just relax me.  So after more drops in my eye, they put a blue rubber dam type of thing over my eye and a opaque plastic device that covered my other eye.  I had no idea of how much time I was there but learned that the procedure took about two hours.  All this time I was aware of light and color while they were working on my eye.  I had heard they would put a needle into my eye so I kept waiting for it, but i never did feel anythiung like what I expected.  I did not feel anything when the doctor was cutting out the cataract and inserting a new acryllic cornea, but I heard them talking above me all the while--though I don't remember anything they said.
     Then they rolled me back to my cubicle from the operating room.  A white plastic protector had been taped to my eye so I could only see the surroundings with my one "good" near-sighted eye.  I was offered diet 7-Up and cheese and crackers, which I ate rather quickly--I hadn't eaten anything for about 7 hours.  They determined that I was okay and wasn't going to throw up,  gave me instructions for post-op care, and they told Merle to get the car ready.  I was pushed in a wheelchair out to the car.  I looked at the clock on the dashboard.  It was 3:45 pm. 
     We  brought haamburgers and ice cream home with us for a late lunch   I didn't get sick, took a nap.  The doctor called later to see if I felt okay--no pain, no nausea, didn't need any pain medicine.  I had a good night's sleep too.
     I went to the doctor's office this morning and they did a little testing.  I learned my cataract was deeper than expected because of my diabetes.  I had a hard time reading the letter chart as my eyes were wavy from more drops.  However, I could tell that the light coming into my operated eye was white but the color I saw around the letters I looked at through my non operated eye were on a yellowish background. On my way to the clinic this morning,  my non-operated eye was seeing stoplights in groups of threes.  Because I had a flat spot I have to go back for another post-op check tomorrow but actually I'm feeling great.   However, I have to put up with eye drops 4 times a day until I have the other eye operated on next month.    I'll probably still need to wear glasses I'm told because I have astigmatism too (hence the three lights I saw instead of one).
     My conclusion is that having a cataract removed was about on par with having the root canals.  Neither one bothered me that much, and I worried more  than it was worth.  I guess I can survive the second cataract procedure when the time comes.
     I really appreciate modern surgery methods and having a doctor and a nurse skilled to be able to use them.  I also appreciate the blessing I had that guided their hands!

Writer's Block or Primroses and Pansies

I haven't added to my blog in about five weeks.  I pondered what subjects I might write about but nothing seemed good enough, or interesting enough.  I have not had any interesting or scary or lovely adventures.  Life just keeps moving in an unending stream of things I need to do, or have to do, or that I should do (which usually don't get done anyway).

But life is wonderful, not boring.  I bought eight light yellow pansies and eight bright pink primroses with dark yellow centers, and planted them every other color in the front yard planter.  In the top tier there are pink hyacinths, which smell ever so good.  The sun has been warm and lovely -- almost 70 degrees yesterday and today.  We also bought two dozen strawberry plants and put them in the raised bed beside the driveway, and the good Lord was gracious enough to send a couple of showers to water them in (because my back was too stiff to do it without Him).

Last Sunday evening we went to our annual Venersborg cemetery meeting, and I took the minutes.  You should see the hen scratched notes!  The pen didn't work right either.  I couldn't read much from them, but agan the good Lord helped me remember what I should write while just looking at the agenda.  The notes didn't even need editing.

I completed sewing another fleece laprobe this week.  I am perfecting an art with the color palates I sew.  I give them to family members, the Veterans Hospital and plan to send some to a nursing home.

Two distant cousins sent me emails this week.  One from each of my mother's lines.  Ever since the new familysearch went on line in Utah, I've been getting about two new emails every week.

I went Visiting Teaching this week to two sisters.  I am amazed at the way Barbara can be so organized in running her household.  She actually gets her 4-year old son to put back a toy before he gets another one out.  And she actually gives things away if they are cluttering her home!  Carol is a busy lady.  She is involved with the 6-stake dance festival to be held this coming July, and has now been called to lead our stake pioneering trek in 2011.  I really enjoy these visits!

 Yesterday and today we held our Spring garage sale.  We did pretty well and actually sold some of the collectibles that have been taking up room in our house.  It was perfect timing for goood weather too -- another tender mercy.

We just finished reading The Hidden Christ by James Farrell and learned a lot about the Old Testament prophets, and how parts of each of their lives paralleled parts of our Savior's life when he was on earth.  Next week our stake will put on a huge exhibit called The Life of Christ to be shown to the public over three days.  Besides the beautiful artwork, and a grest children's room (I helped put together storybooks for Elizabeth who is in charge of that room); we will also have live groups and individuals performing musical numbers.

So, I guess I've been kind of busy.  Maybe that explains my writers block, but basically you just have to start writing anything that comes to mind, and it will build.  I'll try to have a good subject for next time.  I think I'll go out and buy some more flowers.

A BOX OF APPLES

"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof; if we pursue the path that leads to it; this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God." -Joseph Smith Jr.

Last Sunday our RS counselor, Jayna, taught a lesson about happiness, including ways to be happy.  So, yesterday I awoke thinking, Am I Happy?  What is Happiness?

My prayer that morning was for something interesting to do (not dangerous), and ways we could help others.

The day was about as gorgeous a day as you can find in early February.  The sun shined all day and the temperature was in the low 50s.  We drove our relatives to the Portland airport and set out to do some errands.  We stopped at a fairly new liquidator-type store.  After browsing through the aisles of sweatshirts, paper goods, grooming supplies, and groceries, on our way out to the car with our purchases, we noticed some boxes of apples stacked near the doorway.  They smelled wonderful.  They were choice Washington State Fuji apples, as crisp as the day they were picked.  So, we purchased a box for the unbelievably low price of $3.99.  The box was huge.  We didn't need so many for ourselves so we started thinking of people we could give some to.

Merle took a half-dozen to his friend Ed.  Ed gave him several old inner-tubes he needed for a Cub Scout snow adventure.  Then we gave a sackfull to a woman and her grandmother whom he home teaches.  We called our daughters-in-law who each got a dozen, and we called a sister-in-law who wants a half-a-dozen.  We estimated that the box held about 88 normal-size apples when full, and at this point it was down to about 44.  Seeing all those smiles made us feel great!

We decided to share some with our neighbors.  One had picked up our mail while we were gone for a week, and another had loaned us a weed sprayer.  Random thoughts of kindness seem to be catching.  Our whole neighborhood could be made happy by a few apples.  Next Sunday, Jayna will also be a recipient of some apples.  I've heard the saying, "What goes around, comes around."  This is her turn.  In fact, maybe we'll go buy another box and spread some more happiness.