Friends, Service, Home Improvement Projects, and No One Dying of Typhoid

Joy says, "It was a great weekend on little sleep. It started out with Mommy reading scripture with Hyrum and feeding him before Daddy got home."

I had promised that I was responsible for dinner because it was my night for the date.

"And that made me feel free to not have to make any dinner for that night. So I totally exploded and made dinner for Sunday night instead."

Which is her preference anyway - making dinner for a future is much happier for her than cooking for today. "Less stressful, more enjoyable."

"So, feeling well prepared, Derrill got home with ... PIZZA!" PIZZA! Whole wheat crust pizza delivered as I walked up to our door from tiny local pizzeria Pizza Aroma. It was Nice. "Hearty and Tasty." Joy's comment throughout was "This is very flavorful, but still good." I teased her about the word 'but' - I think flavorful pizza is great because it is flavorful, not despite.

Then I took her out on a play date. "Which was easier to prepare for because we were all ready which made it nice to go. When we go play games with our friends, we put Hyrum down for the night at their house." He sleeps through Guitar Hero, Mario games, and loud Uno riots remarkably well. "I'm always amazed."

"We had a nice time visiting with them. We also played some games. I got to do the drums and the vocals. They have a great Beatles Guitar Hero where we know lots of songs and that makes it fun." The regular Guitar Hero gets old since the four of us only know about 5-10 songs of their 80 or whatever it is. "Twist and Shout!" Beatles songs are interesting in part because the Bass has a harder part than the lead guitar, and since Shari likes to be the lead guitar, I get the harder parts. "We played til my wrist gave out on me."

"Then we played Uno. It was fun hashing out what rules we were going to play." People were amazed at how many I wanted to clarify before the game started, but they weren't half so many as the ones we later debated during the game. "It was all friendly, and we all won at least once." Now variants to me: go again when you play a wild card (we ruled that one overpowered); ask the person you want to win what color she would like "That was cute"; and kiss your spouse if you play the same card "same color, same number."

"Then we got home and stayed up late together to read Potter."

Saturday morning was the Primary activity. When they called Joy to be a Primary teacher, there was a whispered warning that 'maybe I could help her out occasionally.' They asked me (and also Joy) to teach the kids about the symbolism of the Passover meal. Joy and another sister passed out the food while I explained the stories - not entirely in costume, but definitely with props. "I appreciated that you did it Derrill because I didn't want to do that part. I could've, but didn't want to."

I had a lot of fun. It was interesting to see what each group of kids remembered about Moses and the children of Israel. Some kids started talking about the tabernacle in the wilderness, another kid stole my thunder and told about the last plague before mentioning the others including details about the blood on the doorposts and on and on, and several kids got confused between Moses and Jesus. We served them a little chicken (instead of lamb - not my fault), romaine lettuce for the bitter herbs, matzo, and grape juice courtesy of the Primary. I told the story of the Passover as it happened to us (one group asked me if this really happened and I got to bear testimony that, yes, it did. Well before my time, but it did.) and when the Primary leader came to switch groups, I asked 'Moses' if it was time to go to the promised land and cheered them away.

One of the youth was kind enough to watch Fantasia 2000 with Hyrum and follow him around the building afterwards. Hy was happy to find us. "I had a really great time helping. I helped prepare the plates to go out to the kids and I really enjoyed visiting with Sis. Haney." Joy identified her as a kindred spirit.

Then we got home and took a nap it was very painful to wake up from. "Only because of its brevity." Joy finally convinced me that she was interested and happy to take over a house project that I was willing but not looking forward to: repairing our leaky roof by putting on another coat of aluminum stuff. I mixed the goo while Joy swept the roof, then she scrambled on up and started painting the roof while I cared for Hyrum and let him practice saying "yes." "That's going to take some time since he's accustomed to just echoing, but I think we'll get it."

"Well that project was bigger than I'd planned! Derrill seemed to have a better idea of what it entailed. I thought 'Half hour - no problem.'" *chortle* "Two hours later and not done yet I decided I'd better stop. Two blisters, blackened hands, black up my arms, on my legs past my knees (seeing as how I'd worn shorts and all)." I meanwhile, had discovered that rubbing alcohol is not the same thing as mineral spirits because it certainly didn't clean the aluminum off my hands. "So we had nothing to clean it off with! And it was kind of painful. I do have some exhema and the aluminum was pretty rough on my hands and legs." The Dawn foamy dish soap did a decent job, but left a lot to be desired. We both figured we'd be colored for several days. Thankfully, we had managed to keep Hyrum away from it. I went to the store last night to get some kerosene and that washes it off very quickly. So the next time someone like me googles: How to clean off aluminum mobile home roofing they will find this blog telling them to use kerosene.

Course, now the house smells like a fire trap inside and out after Joy bathed in aluminum, in kerosene, in water, and in skin moisturizer. I am very thankful for her. I don't like new heights - I'm fine with old heights, but new ones aren't my friends, and I didn't really trust our roof to hold my weight, so I was apprehensive and she saved me. My hero!

We were in so much pain when we went to bed! What a day. Oh right, and Friday we were fasting because one my mission areas was doing a 40-day fast and I had signed up for Friday. So this was the day of and after and while I was struggling with that evil scale that lied to me.

And we're all pretty healthy finally - no strep, no typhoid, no dysentery, ... "just the normal allergies." And today the Primary grabbed me to lead the music singing "Follow the Prophet" (a real learning experience for me!) while Joy taught her kids about Easter. Now she needs to go pick up the sister missionaries to feed them stuffed peppers. I need to do some cleaning, some table setting, and our son will probably wake up from his 4 hour nap eventually..... "Could he really still be asleep??" If not, he's happy. "Well, he didn't sleep well last night....." (fade)