Aug 2 07

August 2, 2007

We ran away today…literally. During the night we heard the Lee family running around again. That’s the first time we’ve heard a sound out of that house since our little escapade with them last week. All night they were running through the field, giving their Apache shouts. So we got very little sleep. Then when we got up and opened the front door the first thing we heard was screaming, fighting and their favorite swear words. I had a bad feeling about it, and don’t know if I was just frightened or if it was a warning. Anyway, as soon as we finished walking we got our showers and were gone in 45 minutes.

We spent the day in Show Low and Pinetop. Basically we just took a day off…sort of. We did stop at the Family History Center and ask about having someone come to Cibecue and help the members who have been to the temple start getting family names ready so they can do work for their own families when they go back. We also did the ever-present grocery shopping and we stopped at Kmart. We saw the Simpsons movie, which we both liked and Robert spent a little time on the driving range while I read Harry Potter. Unfortunately he didn’t finish his bucket of balls because of the rain.

In the midst of all this revelry Maxine called. Last Sunday when we had dinner with them I asked if she was going to have a big birthday party for Faith. She said yes but she didn’t know when. So we started talking about what she could serve and she said she really wanted to have lasagna but doesn’t know how to make it. I told her I’d be glad to help her make lasagna for the party. So she called today from Wal-Mart and wanted to know what to get for the lasagna. Part of our shopping ended up being things to help her with the dinner. The big surprise was that she’s decided to have the dinner tomorrow. Wouldn’t you think that if you planned a big dinner and counted on someone helping with that dinner you would at least let that someone know when the dinner was scheduled? Tomorrow we have our first interviews with the new mission president. Hopefully he’ll let us leave after interviews like Pres Buttars did. We had really counted on seeing The Bourne Ultimatum after interviews, but guess we’ll come home and cook dinner for 60 people instead. That will be just as fun as a movie, no doubt. (You do realize we’re being sarcastic, we hope.)

We’re really noticing the effect of the monsoons because everything is so green now. The cornfields are growing, the trees and grass are lush, and it really is beautiful here. It has rained almost every day for two weeks. So the humidity is really high, but at least we’re not roasting for a little while. It rained all day today and Cibecue Creek was really full. It looked like an actual river. But the area seems able to handle a steady rainfall like that. When we get the floods is when there’s a sudden downpour over a very short period of time.

When I received the new Harry Potter I decided it’s not right to get too carried away with reading it on mission time. So I set a goal to read just one chapter a day. I’m doing well with that goal and am amazed at my own self-control. I’ve had the book for 9 days and just finished Chapter 19.