5.23.26 Rescued! Explosive. Pepper Spray. Flowers. Tires. Pino. Critters Everywhere.

 Retired/Missionary Life. Sunday.

HAPPY SABBATH!!! Here! Have a Jesus Picture! He LOVES YOU!!

We went to Sacrament Meeting. And then Sunday School. (We're studying Old Testament this year. Here's to Moses!) And then Missionary Correlation Meeting. The missionaries in the correlation meeting have changed significantly since last week. So yes, we took a picture!

Also included are some official pics from the Sister Conference Saturday. Can you find Hanna?

Afternoon was spent studying, resting, doing some Spanish lessons, working on the menu for this week, doing up some of the family books, and starting on the Steward Apartment Inspection Assignments.

By nightfall, I was in need of some spiritual boosting, so we watched Ephraim's Rescue. One of the greatest pioneer movies ever made. It did the trick!

Retired/Missionary Life. Monday.

HAPPY MT ST HELENS DAY!! Below is my favorite picture of the mountain showing its power and glory in 1982. I was a new missionary in the MTC when it went off and missed all the excitement. In 2017, Hanna and I climbed to its rim. It was steaming and shakes at times, but it did not go off while we were on top.

Nearly my entire day was spent organizing the housing stuff and assigning out apartments to stewards to inspect. See my cool map below. 212 missionaries living in 65 apartments to be inspected by 16 Steward Couples.

To rest my computer-logged brain, I watched a pre-recorded football game in the evening. Eagles hosting the Broncos. Great game, even if the Eagles lost.

And we tuned in to the mission-wide Zoom meeting before bed time to hear missionaries testify and council be given.

And finally, last night's pictures from the Highlands. How many elk do you see??

Retired/Missionary Life. Tuesday.

- Missionary District Council. Lessons were given and counsel was given. See the picture of three of my favorite missionaries reporting how their week went. They look sharp, but I forget what they were smirking about....

- Got my back adjusted. Feels great now. No picture though....

- We were supposed to have a Spanish Lesson, but it canceled due to illness. So we went to Twigs for a nice lunch and some rounds of Book of Mormon Rummy. Salmon for her. Steak for me.

- We ran some errands. Pharmacy for drugs. Cleaners for nicely pressed white shirts. Grocery store to pick up this week's food order. Car wash to get the mud off the truck. And....we walked on the Centennial Trail. Both Hanna and I spotted the local rabbit. The dogs did not notice it....

- I don't complain much on here, but today.........Frivvy and Gus almost got into it with an off-leash pit bull. He came around a corner of the truck and startled them. Frivvy growled and barked. The pitty lunged, but did not bite, then turned and ran back to his human's car. Neither Frivvy nor Gus have ever given me any indication that they know how to defend themselves. Golden Retrievers generally don't fight. I don't confront much, but I did this time. I told the dude his dog needed to be on a leash. And about then his pitty reappeared around his car with a second pitty and headed straight back towards my dogs. Fortunately, he yelled at them and they came back, after they were growling nose to nose again with my leashed dogs. He made all sorts of excuses why his dogs were OK and how they would never bite, and yada yada yada. I told him if they approached again, they would get a dose of my pepper spray. He didn't like that comment much and finally, after telling me again that they were apparently harmless and I was wrong, apologized like a little kid. "Alright then, I'm sorry!" Someone tell me why a lot of folks think this behavior is ok. He was standing feet away from a sign that said leashed dogs only. My leashed dogs freak when approached by an unleashed dog. So not right and unfair. I see unleashed dogs all the time in the Spokane area.... especially Comstock and now on the Centennial Trail.

- Got home in time to do our studies and go to bed. No more complaining for a while. But seriously, don't mess with my dogs. They are like our kids.

Retired/Missionary Life. Wednesday.

We did chores around the house in the morning. Like breaking down a ton of cardboard. Testing Gus's Halo Collar. Sending out some Mission Housing related Emails. Preparing the lawn to be fertilized.

Afternoon, we worshipped in the temple. Life has been a bit hurried and stressful the past bit and the temple brought me peace.

Fast Food Tacos (Taco Time) for dinner.

Then Hanna attended our Congregation's Women's Group activity making flower arrangements. (Hers ended up in her hair....). While I took a walk with the boys on 16th Avenue.

Retired/Missionary Life. Thursday.

Lots of stuff got done today.

- Dropped the truck off at the shop so they could change out the Transmission Fluid.

- I changed out the tires on the lawn tractor so it will actually have traction now and go up the hill in the grass.

- Spent an hour and a half on a Zoom Call with my new insurance agent changing out our policies from USAA, who dropped coverage on our home, to Liberty. (Now I can't get that jingle out of my head............and I declined the free emu.)

- Reading and studying.

- Cooked up a dinner of Sloppy Joes, Fries, and salad for the Sister Missionaries that serve with us in the Spanish Branch. (I'm always amused that they need to "back" each other out of our driveway. There really is nothing to hit except the "backer upper....")

- Celebrated the trapping (first of the season) of several queen yellowjackets.

- Gawked at Hanna's flowers.

- Hosted an apparent lawn sprinkler installer who instead of agreeing to install our desired sprinkler system, gave us a lecture on how harmful grass is to the environment and how we should abandon our lawn and put in something that requires no water or a small drip system. Best sales pitch ever, right? Hanna was very polite when she said "so sorry we won't be needing your services........"

- That was plenty enough excitement for one day, so we watched an episode of Heartland to unwind.

Retired/Missionary Life. Friday.

Since we spent Monday, our usual Preparation Day, working up Housing Steward Assignments, we spent today doing things around the house.

After the usual reading, studying, breakfast, walking the boys.....

- I put the lawn tractor back together and mowed the lawn. It didn't spin out even once. Great new tires!

- I pulled out the old electric lawn mower that we hadn't used since 2020 to do some of the edging above the cliff we live on......and it started right up! Hurrah for electric motors, right?

- I spent time dealing with lawn sprinkler issues and new insurance changeover issues, and we had to drive to Rockford at the last moment to pick up the truck from the shop.

- There may or may not have been a nap in there somewhere too. And watching a few minutes of the Fever game.

- I fixed Picadillo for dinner. Only I added Eggs to it and thus made it into Pino, the Chilean version. In Chile, it would be served in an empanada. We just put it in tortillas. Delicious!

- And then we called a Mission Companion Council Meeting and watched a movie together. Cabrini. It was A LOT better than I thought it would be and well worth the watch, especially if you're a missionary. Any faith.

- Cool experience from earlier this week. I got a call from Christian Healthcare Ministries, the outfit that handles our medical bills for us. It went like this: "Hi Greg. I was processing the bills you just sent us for your wife's biopsy and PET Scan. The holy spirit just impressed me to call you and make sure you're both doing alright. How are you?" I told her some of the health issues Hanna is having right now and then she asked "can I pray with you?" I'm not going to say "no" to that. So she proceeded, there over the phone. It was a sweet, inspired prayer and she mentioned and blessed us with several things that were relevant that we needed, even though she had no idea of those things. Very inspired. It touched me greatly and I soon was in tears. And so was she. Great experience of service. So blessed to be part of that organization. And....sometimes the Minister needs to be ministered to also.

Retired/Missionary Life. Saturday.

Family day! With nine kids and 16 grandkids between the two of us, a weekly family day is necessary.

First, we declared it old people go to breakfast day and headed to Plummer where we dined at the Gateway and played Book of Mormon Rummy.

Note that on our way out of the driveway, we caught some Geocachers red-handed digging through our Geocache!

We hiked on the Trail of the CDAs. And then on the way home, took the long scenic route and checked on a couple of our Geocaches. This included us seeing a confusing sign (pic below) and the boys enjoying the ride (pic below).

Late afternoon, we took off for Elk to have dinner with Del and Ella and Justin. All the critters played for a while, but then took naps. Great food and great visit with great people!