Apartment, Power & Other Small Updates

Just a quick update to let you know a few things.

First - Emmie signed a lease yesterday. Unfortunately she is only able to rent for July & August. CB & I are paying the rent for her. She has not found a job yet. She says she is trying but that there isn't anything available in Provo. We are hoping that now that she's going to be living in Provo she'll have better luck finding something.

She had requested and paid for a single room. When she got to the apartment she found there had been a mistake and the other beds were already filled. The office was closed & would not be open today due to the holiday. She has already started to get to know her roommates. She said she'll talk to the office tomorrow about getting the cheaper rent (shared room rate).

She sent me a few pictures of her part of the room.

It looks small but at least it's furnished. I'm glad she has this opportunity to live on her own. I know going to a Singles Ward will be very good for her. I just hope she can find work and an apartment that doesn't require her to be a student. Her plans were to go to school but at this she's nothing about that.

Second - my Mom got power back yesterday! Yay! My older brother, Scott, called me yesterday afternoon to let me know that power had been restored. He was very excited. It had only been 3 1/2 days without power with temperatures in the 90's and of course our lovely high humidity. Mom is having a Fourth of July "picnic" this afternoon.

On a side note - The City of Gaithersburg cancelled their fireworks. They usually have a day of activities before the fireworks. It is on the Country's fairgrounds. The local power company, PEPCO, has been using the fairgrounds as a "home base" for their repair crews. The City decided that leaving them there & continuing to restore people's power was more important. I couldn't agree more. There are other firework shows close enough that if we really want to go & see some we can. I cannot imagine still being without power.

BTW - The kids (G, T & Rosie) had a youth activity last night. They went swimming at the Bishop's house. The Bishop & his wife own a kids summer camp. It is on the same property as their house. Rosie didn't get to swim as she waited too long to get into her bathing suit. It started raining almost right away. Then it began lightening. They had to get out of the pool, for safety, after seeing the lightening. Rosie had just barely come back from putting her suit on.

We drove home another girl from our Ward, Melissa. She was actually staying with a family friend. Their power is still out. Their family (Mom plus 3 children) have been going from friend's house to friend's house since Saturday. Ugh!

Very Hot Day - Let's Play Games! & Emmie's having fun!

It's really hot today! Much too hot to go outside! We're trying to stay cool while having fun.

First we played Blokus (the kids have played this before, but I hadn't). I did rather well. G & I tied with only 14 tiles left.  After Blokus we got into a game of Risk. I think the game board has changed since my older brother & I used to play as kids in Virginia. I guess that makes sense as names and borders of countries have changed.

Land war between G & T

We gave up after a few hours as it was getting just too hot inside.  Our a/c doesn't work very well.  We live on the top floor on the west side of our building (4th floor).  We get the sun all afternoon.  I had heard from a friend that the high today was supposed to be around 103°.  We decided to go to my Mom's house & enjoy her air conditioning.  On the way over there the car showed the outside temperature to be 100°.

We stayed at Mom's a few hours then headed home.  BTW - it was 75° in Mom's house and felt soooooooooo good!  We had to leave at 4:30 because Rosie had a babysitting job for a neighbor.  Due to the excessive heat, I didn't want to have to turn on the oven or stove to make dinner so we stopped for a quick dinner at McDonald's (3 of us had salads) and headed home.  The outside temperature showed it was 103°!  I have lived in MD since 1977 and I cannot ever remember it being so hot in June!

Outside Temperature 4:30 PM ish

On another note, Emmie is in UT & having fun.  Heather is visiting from Carnation, WA & playing tourist.  Emmie is hanging with my sisters & their kids.  Today they went to the Bingham Copper Mine.  I can remember going there as a child every few years when we would go visit family in UT.  Here is a picture my sister sent to me.

She also sent me this one.  I can remember as kids playing in one of these tires at the Copper Mine and having our picture taken. I'll have to look for it.

Yesterday they were in Salt Lake City visiting Temple Square.  My sister sent me this picture of Emmie in the Visitor's Center.  I have various pictures of my family in front of the same statue.

This weekend is supposed to be rather hot.  Hopefully we'll do okay.  I'm ready for fall already!