I Need a Vacation to Recover From My Vacation

When we returned from the Holy Land, spring had arrived to Billings.  After the excitement of our journey across the world, we returned to a life that was quiet, slow, and relaxing. We spent oodles of hours sitting on our rocking chairs on the front porch, watching the daffodils unfurl.
Yep. That's my story. Never mind that we don't own a rocking chair. 

While we were gone, our dying tree split in half. No one hauled it away for us while we were vacationing-can you believe that? Thank goodness--with all my spare time, I can spend a full day cutting it up into small enough pieces to remove it to the city dump. I've got time and energy for that. 

Just before we left for Israel, we found a single mom with three kids to rent our duplex. We agreed to turn the unit into Section 8 housing for her, but Section 8 requires us to have egress windows in the third bedroom. We reluctantly told our prospective renter we couldn't afford that. She said her dad was a contractor and had been for 30 years and would put an egress window in for free-supplies and labor. She and her kids had been living with her dad for 12 years, and apparently he's good with her moving out on her own.

After a quick "Is that ok?" call to Section 8, we gave him the go-ahead. All of the work happened while we were gone.

It looks amazing, and will forever increase the rental potential/value of the duplex.
 I was disappointed Stan and I didn't get to dig and cut.

No I'm not. We are pretty happy with the deal. 

The girls, especially Makayla, said they missed seeing me. They wanted to do a "project" the moment I stepped off the plane. I was drawing blank when it came to new projects, so I pulled out some supplies and suggested they come up with their own project. 

They created these foam board purses. Pretty cute! Best of all, they happily cut, colored, and taped for most of one afternoon.

While we were gone, Hailey had 4 inches of hair cut off.  It's now only 12 feet long.

While we were gone, Makayla lost one side tooth and got busy growing in two front teeth. Good job, Makayla!

It was the week before Easter when we returned, so we boiled some eggs

and dyed them.

Concentration Tongue Makayla using a white crayon to make a design.

After dying eggs, these two pulled toys out of the family room so that they could play in the busiest, least convenient area in the house while I did catch-up laundry. They claimed they had missed me so much they didn't want to be all the way down a level, separated from me. How could I resist that? It's nice to be loved. I cheerfully climbed over the toys as I put laundry away.

After our return, Makayla slept at our house while Hailey did her sleep study. Hailey has trouble staying awake during the day, although she regularly gets a good night's sleep. The test found that she does, indeed, have sleep issues, although they couldn't say why. After a normal night's sleep while at the hospital, she fell asleep three times during the hospital's 5 designated nap times during the day. The good news is that she doesn't have narcolepsy. More testing to come.

I'd promised the girls we'd go to the movies when I got back. I kept my promise. Cinderella the first week,

followed by Home the second week. Nothing thrills me more than eating greasy popcorn while sitting through a 2 hour cartoon. What a great user upper of my acres of extra time!

The Friday after we were home was Good Friday, and a school vacation. Great! I was wondering what to do with that Friday. I promised the girls before I left town that I'd take them to Chuck E Cheese when I was back. I kept my promise.

Sunday was General Conference and these two stopped by in their Easter finery to eat dinner with us.

They are so adorable, I couldn't even be upset when they nixed sampling a deviled egg. 

Hailey got sent home from school for being sick one day, and came to hang out with me.
Wonderful!
I was afraid I'd have nothing to do that day. 

Amy has two intense weeks each year at her job--the weeks her company does their fund-raising. One is in late summer, one is right now. She is a big part of the success of those fund-raisers, but those two weeks are extremely busy and stressful for her. We had yet another sleepover the night of her event. That's good--I've grown tired of my regular 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Makayla is a professional sleep disrupter and did a good job of waking me up at 3:14 am to see what time it was. It really helps me get over jet lag when that happens.

When we got back into town, one of our renters notified us she was moving out in 9 days. She apparently forgot move outs required a 30 day notice. This is the apartment after she moved out. She also apparently forgot moving out also means you move your things with you. 

Seriously? 

Really, we prefer you take your toaster oven and kitchen do-dads.

 We'd like the rugs and that wall thingy gone and the shower curtain not gone.

Well this is fun! She left a pair of handcuffs. That's a new one for us. She forgot to leave the key--I get to take the knob off to remove them.

Another lovely surprise!  A headboard in the bedroom, painted with spray paint, including metallic gold. Apparently, she forgot about that part of the rental agreement that said "no painting without written permission".She dared to ask how soon she was getting her deposit back. Yeah,,,,it's in the mail.....

Here's how the wall looked after I sanded it, primed it, and painted over it twice. Thanks, ex-renter, for the aerobic workout. I was looking for a way to rid myself of the pounds I didn't gain from the vacation gelato I didn't eat.

We did gift the bedroom furniture to Amy and girls. They were delighted.

Anyone need a cot or some hangers? The washer and dryer are ours. We've got a side business renting them to our renters.

We were particularly thrilled to see (and smell) that her cat used the laundry room as a giant litter box. You can see a pile of poop on the left side of the picture.

New renters move in Wednesday so 

 I've been using all of that vast ocean of extra spare time I have  to paint, clean, shampoo carpets, and move furniture.

I love being a landlord. It keeps me from descending into terminal laziness.

While I'm working to get the 4-plex up and running, Stan has been working hard at our little house remodel. Good thing--I think he had five minutes between bishopric duties with nothing to do. My entourage and I stopped by to find the kitchen is now in the garage so that

 flooring can be put in. Makayla approves. She says it's dancing floor. Stan and the friend we've hired have been laying the floor themselves. We decided after considering every known flooring type to use hardwood, which is very reasonable if you can lay it yourself.

Here's a shot of the same space showing the old flooring and pony wall. Big improvement!

The kitchen/dining room is done, and the living room is half done. The hallway and three bedrooms still need to be done.

The new front door is in. It's a huge upgrade.

You can't really see the old door in this picture, but it was completely weathered and warped due to age and cigarette smoke.

Here's the inside of the old door. When the living room flooring is finished, I'll be able to get a better picture of the new door.

FYI, the girls are not included in the future cost of the rent.

They're kind of noisily exuberant anyway. You have to be willing to get out of your rocking chair to deal with them.

.

Well, there you go. How nice we didn't have a single moment to feel jet lag. I'm sure we can catch up on sleep next week.

A Trip to Israel: March 10 and 11 Jaffa

About ten months ago, Judy called with an invitation to join them on a trip to Israel. 

I thought about it for 1.3 seconds, and quickly accepted. A Holy Land trip has always been on our bucket list, and despite a camera that refused to work, food poisoning (Stan), an annoying cold (both of us), and an embarrassing and painful fall (me), it did not disappoint. 

I cannot imagine a more interesting, amazing, and perceptive-changing place to go. 

We left Billings March 10th at 1:25 pm and arrived in Israel March 11 at 3:20 pm, about a 18 hour journey, accounting for the time difference. 

It was a thrill to finally step off the plane and find ourselves in Israel.

We left the airport and joined the Cannons, along with their friends the Haws and Vines, in the city of Jaffa. Jaffa is actually the old part of Tel Aviv, and site of significant biblical events.

Jaffa is also an important and ancient port city.

To my great joy, Jaffa is home to this lovely gelato stand. Upon seeing the variety of tasty flavors, I had high expectations for the rest of our trip. I was to be sorely disappointed.

Judy, telling me to get thirds because this would be one of our few opportunities to get REALLY good gelato. At least that what she SHOULD have been telling me.

Our next stop was St. Peter's Church, a Franciscan Catholic church, built around 1654 over a medieval citadel, destroyed, then built again between 1888-1894. We found that was common--an invading group would destroy or take over a church and rebuilt or remodel a dozen times over the centuries.

 We were enthusiastically greeted by Father Ison, who was very familiar with Mormons, having worked in Hawaii at the Polynesian Center. He spotted members of our group outside, and asked if they were Mormon. I was soon to discover he was the first of a multitude of warm, welcoming souls in this corner of the world who willingly spent time with us, talking with great sincerity and passion about their own area of expertise. 

The church had several panels depicting events from Peter's life, such as the raising of Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9:36-42), an event that took place in this city.

The front of the church with

 a picture depicting Peter's dream in Jaffa (aka Joppa), as recorded in Acts 11:5-6.

I love this depiction of the descending dove, above the pulpit.

 The ceiling was high and arched, not unlike the cathedrals we saw in Europe, although this church was smaller and simpler.

Of course, this being Israel, the menorah is everywhere, even in a Catholic church.

The outdoor corridor and 

 courtyard, with a statue of St Louis. 

Father Ison showed us the citadel connected to the side of the church, originally a fort built by the crusaders, who came to the area beginning in 1099.

According to Father Ison, this room was used as a prayer room, as well as housing for such dignitaries as Richard the Lionheart and Napoleon.

Ceiling of the prayer room. It must have been quite a feat to make this domed, circular room with stones and mortar.

 The bell tower of St Peter's, probably the tallest building in town.  Hailey, looking over my shoulder as I am typing said, "Are those palm trees? I thought palm trees lived in California." So did I. I certainly didn't picture Israel as a home to palm trees.

Jaffa is the place Jonah hopped on a ship to avoid preaching repentance in Ninveh, That didn't work out so well. You can see our excellent guide, Yosef Spiezer, there on the right.

Jaffa is also the location of a zodiac sculpture/water fountain.

  

 We saw one of the gates to the city dating all the way back to the 13th century BCE. Those figures down the sides are the many titles of  King Ramesses II

 We visited the new old shops of Jaffa, a mere 200 years old. Compared to that gate, it's a spring chicken area.

 It was beautiful in the evening light.

Our guide took us to "Oranger Suspendu" in the old shop area, a work by Ran Morin. According to this internet site it is "an [o]range tree, steel structure covered with ground stone & pigments, steel cables".

 Our guide said this area used to be full of orange groves, but no more.

 View of the city.

 The city is a maze of stairways,

side streets,

and pathways. It would be easy to get lost here.

We walked down to the harbor.

You can almost see poor Jonah, desperately looking for a space on a ship to get out of town.

Here, our guide pulled out some glasses and delicious grape juice. He told us it is customary to toast the first time you are in Israel, remembering you were "put by God at this time in this place". I loved the patriotism and pride that radiated from all of our guides. Yosef was no exception.

 Our final stop of the day was Dr  Shakshuka, a fabulous local restaurant.

The high ceiling was covered with old heating burners. 

I took a couple of blurry pictures before I dug in. We ordered a group meal, several kinds of dishes of delicious food, humus, sauces, and sides

and ate till we couldn't eat any more. We had a few meals like this during our journeys; family style dishes everyone took a serving from, always much, much more fabulous food than we could finish. These were, without exception our very best meals.

We collapsed at the end of the day in the Dan Jerusalem Hotel, located at 32 Lehi Street. Hmm. I wonder who named that street?

It was a lovely hotel room, with the exception of this large, obnoxious bathroom scale. Seriously, who wants to have a scale on vacation? Not me!