Building up to Trip Departure...

Sunday, October 30th, was a good Sabbath Day. We slept till we wanted to wake up. Got ready and headed to Church. It was a good sacrament meeting followed by a good experience in Primary. I first checked on the two classes and the nursery. I found one class with all the chairs (large folding and little kids chairs) on their side in a mass. The kids were all there and hiding in amongst them. I asked if they did this. They assured me the chairs were like that when they came in. I said, "Okay, I need helpers to fold them up. The kids said they wanted to sit in the little kid chairs. We put those up in the front of the room. Then they helped me fold all the bigger folding chairs. When the teachers arrived, we had it about ready to go. The pianist was out of town so I got to play for Primary. Always enjoy this.

After Church we went through the drive-thru at Panera and got salads to bring home. After eating, Claude took a nap while I worked on pictures and my Blog. 

In the evening, I facilitated the 6th of our 10 Emotional Resilience Self-Reliance lessons. Small group, but a good group of people. 

In the evening we watched our Ken Burns documentary on Benjamin Franklin. When it was over, I found Benjamin Franklin's autobiography on my Kindle and ordered it. Claude can see my books on his Kindle, so he has it as well to read. Benjamin Franklin was an interesting man. 

Monday, October 31st, was a day to clear off the to do list and get ready for packing. Lots of little things to communicate to others before we leave, travel plans started that needed a few more things done for future trips, a couple of Christmas presents to wrap, etc. 

In the evening we sat out by the garage for trick-or-treaters. I am really proud of us. Claude purchased the candy a week before. We didn't even touch it!! Yeah us! These are the first trick-or-treaters we saw starting out their evening.

We had two little girls dressed in the same costume as our great grandmonsters in Michigan. Their mother's let me take pictures of them. This first is the little neighborhood girl and the second is Raelyn, our great grandmonster. 

The first one of these pictures is a little neighborhood girl dressed like a unicorn. The second is our great grandmonster, Emelia. I thought this was a princess outfit until I realized there was a unicorn horns and wings. 

One little boys came by and I also got permission to get his picture because our son-in-law loves Washington Nationals.

We sat outside for an hour and passed out candy. Then we went back inside. The crowd had died down and we still had clouds overhead and it was getting cold. Didn't want to take a chill and get sick before our big trip. It was fun talking to all these little ones.

Tuesday, November 1st, was a day to get things done before our trip. Laundry and ironing. Clearing out things on the laptop. Signing up for Amazon Smiles to help the Oldham County High School Band. Watering plants and grass. Getting my purse, back pack and ditty bag ready for the trip. Lots of little things. In the evening we watched documentaries and I did a little embroidery work. 

Wednesday, November 2nd, Primary presidency meeting was canceled in the morning. This left me time to start packing my clothes. I have a grid of what we do each day. Using that as a reference, I determined we need 8 changes of clothes plus whatever on top of that. I laid out my clothing. Then I went to check us in for our flight. I tried multiple times and nothing worked. I kept getting a server error. I am assuming this was on Delta's end. I got my shower and came back to try again. Several more attempts and it didn't work. Ugh.

I had an appointment at noon for a haircut. Got in my car and it would not turn on. The message on the screen said it had no device connected. My cellphone was in my purse. It took me a minute for it to register that I cleaned out my purse the day before in preparation for the trip. I took all keys out except for my Jeep key which we'll be using to get to and from the airport. I always carry it in case something happens with Claude's key. Back in the house I ran to get my car keys. Car started just fine with them in the car!

Off I hurried to my haircut appointment. I knew I was a bit late now but not so much that it was a concern. However. Jenna's house in on a little country road and I came upon a farmer in a tractor with a trailer. The road goes up a small incline and there were two yellow lines in the middle. The truck behind me determined those did not apply to him and he zoomed around me and the farmer pulling a trailer. I waited till I got to Jenna's drive. My life is more important than crossing that double yellow line. Jenna gave me a great haircut and it felt better for traveling.

Home to get Claude packed and try to get those airline tickets checked in. No luck with the airlines but the USPS did let me put a hold on my mail for while we are gone. 

Later in the evening I was able to get us checked in for our flight. Hallelujah. We had time to relax in the evening and go to bed early for our early start the next morning for a grueling journey to Manaus, Brazil.