It has been a quiet week. NOT. I did want to write that just to see how it would be. Maybe one day I will mean it. I also wanted to post the photo of the hail we had 2 weeks ago, just before we left Malaga. It was rather amazing. You can see it on the grass and in the gutter. This was the storm that caused the accident with the mission van.
We had zone leader training on Tue so that means that all the mail, packages, and orders for BofM, pamphlets, etc had to be ready for them to dash in, grab and go. That preparation was done Mon. As the Zone leaders came, they also wanted a few more things some of which have to be recorded to we can charge for them, and they left their reimbursment requests in stacks too. It was hectic but so fun. We love to see these great missionaries and in Rod's case put faces to names. I still don't remember names. It was a very rainy day too. That night I got a call that an Elder who had been having diarrhea for 4 days, had started back with a fever. I felt that he needed to see a doctor, so after consulting with Sister Deere, we headed off to get him. This was extra hard because the rain was so heavy that it was difficult to see well enough to drive, let alone find our way. Our GPS was in the other car and we didn't know where they lived. We were on the phone with the Elders and they had a map but signs with the names of roads here are on the sides of buildings and quite small which makes it hard to navigate even in the daytime. Soooo the miracle(s) of the week: we found them, found the hospital, found the pharmacy, and got them back again without accident and in a timely way. Our insurance would have worked if the authorization letter had come but after our 3 hour visit, the fax still hadn't made it. We were glad that we have a good credit card. The hospital may have charged a little more than the insurance pays state side, but it is a 'for profit' hospital so it could have been worse too. Our Elder was dehydriated and had a serious infection so he got lab, IV fluids and IV antibiotics, all done in about 3 hours. That is the impressive part. At home it would have taken twice that amount of time on a good night. It did the trick and he was feeling much better afterwards. I was pleased that I could understand the doctor pretty well, especially as she spoke very quickly. After taking them home, we stopped at the old apt and picked up some more of our stuff. It only took 15 minutes to load it up but we felt like thieves. I guess because it was late at night and we were trying to be quiet. How odd. We got home about 2:30 AM.
The next morning we helped transport missionaries to Benalmadena ( 20 min drive) to do some residency work. Without the van, we had to caravan with Sister Deere to get all the missionarys there. (I posted on face book about that accident. A manhole cover 'exploded' into the bottom of the van as the missionaries were coming home from taking the Stevens to the airport. They were unhurt but the underside of the van was torn to pieces, and we still don't know if it will be replaced or repaired and if we get a rental in the mean time.) By the time we got done with that Rod and I were pretty beat, so we went home to eat and sleep.When we got up it was late enough that we decided not to go back to the office.
Instead we went to Ikea and bought a bed. Now we have spent a lot of time looking and trying beds. We will be here for 2 years. That is long enough that we felt it was worth buying something we really liked. The Stevens slept on a double bed size foam matress that I couldn't stand. I expect it is mostly in my mind but I hate sleeping on foam rubber. Is it enough like latex that I am alergic? Maybe, either way, I have been on a twin in the spare room. Rod's feet and half of his calves hang off if he stretches out. We tried to order one we liked last week,but the store was closed the day we went and it would have been 3-4 weeks till it was delivered. Wed we decided to get the Ikea one..., well really two.
Here, beds are sold by cm size. Rod is 194cm so we wanted the 200 cm length. The bed in Malaga is 150cm wide, almost queen size. What we finally bought was a pair of 90cm wide beds and the bases (and sheets). That ends up nearly King size. Rod didn't much like the crack in the middle, but with these we could transport them ourselves in our car. We had to take off the cardboard but we got the matresses and bases in the car, took them home and set up The Bed! We were even able to get them in the elevator (one at a time). We are on the 4th floor so that was a big plus. It is sooooo nice to stretch out, not have to worry about bumping when you turn over, and it is clean and new. Love it. We strapped the frames together so they don't slide apart.
Thursday evening we went to the church. I did our branch 'cleaning assignment' this week, while Rod started the job of cleaning up the branch records that had been dumped in a drawer. Remember he is the branch clerk. I have spent some of my time at home working on cleaning out and sorting the stuff in the cupboards, which really, only I can do to my liking. I was kind of glad to let him do his version of the same thing at the church and just straight clean. Friday night we wanted to eat out. there are cafeterias everywhere, but they serve mostly just snacks and sandwiches. We started walking down a street we didn't know and found a restaurant we really liked, food was cheap and fast. We weren't sure where we were afterwards, but walked back Sat afternoon and found it right away. It is kind of fun to get lost and then find yourself again.We also looked at keyboards. We will probably buy one of those too as Rod is now the pianist for church. Maybe I can reclaim enough skill to help out once in a while. Sat. while I worked in the kitchen, Rod scrubbed 'his' bathroom. It is nice to really clean out the hard water scale and gunge. That way the hair in the corner is your own and not someone elses. After I finished in the kitchen, I spent a couple of hours on 'my' bathroom. I really wanted to get the tub cleaned so that I could calk around the surround. It has been leaking and I hope that now it won't leave puddles on the floor. There is still a lot to do, but we are making progress.
Tonight, I finally made a full dinner. It looked so pretty to me that I had to take photos. Just so you know, we took off an old style lace table cloth and bought the place mats (on Fri) to make our table look a bit more modern.
It was so tasty that we invited the sisters over to have some too. They were sharing a scripture with us and showed us where a dog ate their planner...have you heard that one before teachers?
We had zone leader training on Tue so that means that all the mail, packages, and orders for BofM, pamphlets, etc had to be ready for them to dash in, grab and go. That preparation was done Mon. As the Zone leaders came, they also wanted a few more things some of which have to be recorded to we can charge for them, and they left their reimbursment requests in stacks too. It was hectic but so fun. We love to see these great missionaries and in Rod's case put faces to names. I still don't remember names. It was a very rainy day too. That night I got a call that an Elder who had been having diarrhea for 4 days, had started back with a fever. I felt that he needed to see a doctor, so after consulting with Sister Deere, we headed off to get him. This was extra hard because the rain was so heavy that it was difficult to see well enough to drive, let alone find our way. Our GPS was in the other car and we didn't know where they lived. We were on the phone with the Elders and they had a map but signs with the names of roads here are on the sides of buildings and quite small which makes it hard to navigate even in the daytime. Soooo the miracle(s) of the week: we found them, found the hospital, found the pharmacy, and got them back again without accident and in a timely way. Our insurance would have worked if the authorization letter had come but after our 3 hour visit, the fax still hadn't made it. We were glad that we have a good credit card. The hospital may have charged a little more than the insurance pays state side, but it is a 'for profit' hospital so it could have been worse too. Our Elder was dehydriated and had a serious infection so he got lab, IV fluids and IV antibiotics, all done in about 3 hours. That is the impressive part. At home it would have taken twice that amount of time on a good night. It did the trick and he was feeling much better afterwards. I was pleased that I could understand the doctor pretty well, especially as she spoke very quickly. After taking them home, we stopped at the old apt and picked up some more of our stuff. It only took 15 minutes to load it up but we felt like thieves. I guess because it was late at night and we were trying to be quiet. How odd. We got home about 2:30 AM.
The next morning we helped transport missionaries to Benalmadena ( 20 min drive) to do some residency work. Without the van, we had to caravan with Sister Deere to get all the missionarys there. (I posted on face book about that accident. A manhole cover 'exploded' into the bottom of the van as the missionaries were coming home from taking the Stevens to the airport. They were unhurt but the underside of the van was torn to pieces, and we still don't know if it will be replaced or repaired and if we get a rental in the mean time.) By the time we got done with that Rod and I were pretty beat, so we went home to eat and sleep.When we got up it was late enough that we decided not to go back to the office.
Instead we went to Ikea and bought a bed. Now we have spent a lot of time looking and trying beds. We will be here for 2 years. That is long enough that we felt it was worth buying something we really liked. The Stevens slept on a double bed size foam matress that I couldn't stand. I expect it is mostly in my mind but I hate sleeping on foam rubber. Is it enough like latex that I am alergic? Maybe, either way, I have been on a twin in the spare room. Rod's feet and half of his calves hang off if he stretches out. We tried to order one we liked last week,but the store was closed the day we went and it would have been 3-4 weeks till it was delivered. Wed we decided to get the Ikea one..., well really two.
Here, beds are sold by cm size. Rod is 194cm so we wanted the 200 cm length. The bed in Malaga is 150cm wide, almost queen size. What we finally bought was a pair of 90cm wide beds and the bases (and sheets). That ends up nearly King size. Rod didn't much like the crack in the middle, but with these we could transport them ourselves in our car. We had to take off the cardboard but we got the matresses and bases in the car, took them home and set up The Bed! We were even able to get them in the elevator (one at a time). We are on the 4th floor so that was a big plus. It is sooooo nice to stretch out, not have to worry about bumping when you turn over, and it is clean and new. Love it. We strapped the frames together so they don't slide apart.
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| The BED! |
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| Yes, I still get in comfortable clothes after church on a Sunday evening. |
Tonight, I finally made a full dinner. It looked so pretty to me that I had to take photos. Just so you know, we took off an old style lace table cloth and bought the place mats (on Fri) to make our table look a bit more modern.
We are having a wonderful time. Love you all.
2 comments:
I was going to ask about the bed in the next email! I'm so glad you found a great solution. I'm so glad everything has been working out. I think you'll pick piano back up way faster than you'll think.
In other strange news, I recaulked our bathroom this weekend too! It's amazing how much cleaner the shower feels. Do they have a home depot of sorts in Malaga?
It is amazing how a nice bed can lead to a more restful night's sleep, which can lead to an incredible increase in mood. Of course, this is from your son who still prefers to sleep on the floor.... Thanks for your call. Love you.
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