Stacey and I were in Detroit this weekend. We left on Friday after work and we didn’t get home until 8:00 this evening. That’s why this is so late. Sarah and Tosh moved (really are moving because they haven’t finished yet) from their small apartment into a nice house. We went out to check out their new place and help a little. More about that later.
Not much happened during the week. We had a hard freeze Sunday night and even a bit of snow on Monday morning. The weather was cool the rest of the week, but not cold after Monday. It rained a little. I didn’t get much done outdoors, just a bit of weeding. The hard freeze we had Sunday night didn’t do too much damage. Some of the pear blossoms got nipped, but other than that, things look okay. Now if it would just stay warm, it looks like we’ll have a good fruit crop this year.
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| Snow on Monday morning. |
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| Apple blossoms. |
Tuesday was Stacey’s birthday. We had a nice celebration over at the Shillig’s house.
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| Stacey's birthday. |
Last week was Josiah’s last full week of school. He took his final exams and passed all of them with high grades. This week he’ll be away on the senior class trip for most of the week. The senior class and chaperones are going to Virginia Beach. We’re dropping him off at the school tonight at midnight. He’ll be back on Thursday night sometime. Josiah has never been to the beach. He was 18 months old when we moved here and I don’t think we ever took him to the beach before we left California. He wouldn’t remember anyway. I think he’ll have a good time. We’ve warned him about sunburn, riptides, sharks, jellyfish and all such things – not to scare him, but to instill some caution in his usual “I’m-an-invincible-and-immortal-teenage-boy” attitude.
So, the big event of our week, at least for me and Stacey, was our quick trip to Detroit. It takes us about seven hours to drive there. We left here at 5:00 p.m. and got there at midnight on Friday. We spent a major portion of the day on Saturday touring the MGM Grand where Sarah works. We were very impressed. We really had no idea what a huge place it is and how great Sarah’s responsibilities are. She is the assistant pastry chef and she runs an enormous kitchen that makes hundreds and even thousands of pastries and desserts for the banquet hall and other events held at the MGM. We had the honor of meeting her boss, Chef Orlando Santos, who gave us the grand tour. He showed us some of the things that go on behind the scenes in running a big operation like the MGM Grand. At the end of the tour we were treated to lunch at the Pallette restaurant’s buffet. It was all so great. We have a new appreciation for what Sarah and Orlando do.
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| Plated desserts at the MGM. |
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| In the chocolate room at the MGM. |
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| Making dinner rolls. |
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| Desserts in one of the big cooler rooms. |
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| The uniform room. |
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| With Chef Orlando. |
This morning we went to church with Sarah and Tosh. It was their Stake Conference, so we were out of church by noon. We had a quick lunch at their house and then headed home. So, we are home now and tired from all the time spent in the car. We left Josiah home by himself for the weekend. He’s a big boy and we trusted him to survive on his own a few days. Besides, the Shilligs were right next door if he needed anything. He said it was quiet here. He spent a lot of time practicing the piano. What a good boy.
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| Sarah and Tosh in front of their new house. |
Now it’s time to retire and get some solid sleep to be ready for the week ahead. With Josiah gone, it will be up to me to do the chores. And I won’t have him here to help me with all the things I need to do in the garden. I guess I’d better get used to that. If things went according to plan, our Stake President submitted Josiah’s missionary application today. Now we get to wait anxiously to see what happens next.
