New Socks! Wide Calf Socks to Boot!

It seems inappropriate to be bare-legged.  Because of health issues I need to wear mostly natural fiber socks/stockings or my feet develop fungal infections.  For real.

So I have been wearing white cotton ankle socks and other low socks.  Not being fond of frequent leg-epilation efforts (the grasping of the handle is often quite uncomfortable) I have been searching for knee socks that are mostly cotton but 1. stay up, 2. are large enough for my "wide" calves, and 3. are not too ugly.

Well, I found some!  

Sadly, there are no conservative plain black, navy, or brown plain socks.  They have only "novelty" socks.  I ordered one pair...black with a red blaze on them. I thought perhaps the blaze would be above the level of my skirt so they would be okay.  Maybe yes, maybe no. I cannot see the blaze from where I am, so I am burying my head in the sand like a flamingo.  No, not a flamingo.  What is that bird...oh, ostrich.  The ostrich buries his head in the sand so no-one will see the red blaze on his black stockings.

Since the first pair of knee socks fit well I ordered some more.  The black with white stripes has some naughty language on them so I really DO need to only wear them with my longest skirt.  As far as the others, well, it is a good thing I am mostly sitting at a desk!  The Starry Night socks I think I will wear with the beautiful navy skirt my sister gave me.

Mission: Mission-Wide Email Before Transfer

One of the mission secretary responsibilities is to send an email to all the missionaries about cleaning their apartments one week before transfers.

This is the message that was left for me to send out:
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Subject: preparation for transfers (or however you wish to word it)

Body of email:

Transfers are a week from today.  Please take the time this week to clean your apartments in anticipation of transfers.

Use the Grab ‘N Go plastic bags in your apartment to dispose of food in the fridge and cupboards.

Use the Grab ‘n Go bags to take reusable clothing and other articles that you no longer need or that were in the apartment when you arrived, to a donation station (Goodwill, Deseret Industries pod).

Your belongings should all fit in your two suitcases. 

Pick up any mail that might have been delivered to your apartment.

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The first two transfers I was here I did send out that message.  The third transfer I send one that was a little different.  One of the missionaries spoke to me about having a more fun message to read so I thought I would do it again.

This is the message I sent last week:

Subject Line:  Elders and Sisters:  Happy Days are Here Again!

Body of email:

It is time for new missionaries to arrive, and experienced missionaries are departing.  Between now and then is a great time to clean house.

 If you have acquired a lot of “stuff’ that is just cluttering up your nests,  now is the time to find new homes for the clutter:  Deseret Industries if you live nearby,  Salvation Army Thrift stores, or other thrift stores for good things  you just won’t be using again; 

items another missionary could use that won’t clutter up his or her space but would be a real help, go ahead and pass them along. 

For just plain junk, well, you know what to do with that.  Be sure to put all junk in the actual junk receptacles so the Mission will not have to use sacred tithing funds for fines and other fees.  It may surprise you, but there are housing management teams that actually have levied hefty fines for missionaries not putting trash or recycling in the proper containers. 

If you have not recently pulled everything out of your refrigerator, washed the inside of your refrigerator, and then put back only the good, healthy, non-furry food items back inside,  please do that this week.  I will do the same.  Elder Crossett is not big on finding colorful furry things in the refrigerator, and I am pretty fond of him and like to keep him happy.  A thought just crossed my mind:  once  you have emptied, cleaned, and re-stocked your refrigerator,  why don’t you snap a picture and send it to me! I would love to see your nice tidy clean food storage!  You don’t have to, of course, but I would sincerely be interested.

One big thing to remember,  you only have two suitcases to travel with you.  Can everything reasonably fit inside?  I hope so.  If not, you saw the above.  Also, if your family is still sending you things that are too hard to transport,  perhaps you might tell them how much  you enjoy their love offerings but tell them it is tough to get everything in  your luggage…?  It is a thought.

With much love to you all,

Sister Crossett

Mission Secretary

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Hopefully that is upbeat enough to get the job done.  I have not gone all the way to the back of our refrigerator yet, but am close!  I really do intend to get it done before Wednesday. 

Munchie Monday: Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Last week Dear One told me that National Chocolate Cake Day was coming up.  That was news to me.  In the last month Elder A had his 79th birthday.  I made this chocolate sour cream cake then. It was quite popular in the office.  Elder A took the leftovers home for his birthday supper.  The next day he came back and said it was VERY popular there, too.

So, since I ALWAYS pay strict attention to what Dear One suggests (sadly, not...but this time I did...) and since he asked me to make this cake so we can share it with some elderly church members we visit at home, I went ahead and did it yesterday, on National Chocolate Cake Day.  He then suggested that I record the recipe somewhere I could find it again. Hum, I wonder if that means he likes the cake?!

So here it is:

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

1 cup butter
1/3 cup powdered unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Butter and flour a fluted bundt pan.

Set the oven preheating to 350 degrees F.

In a smallish saucepan place the butter, cocoa, salt, and water.  Using a long-handled wooden spoon, stir over medium heat until completely combined and smooth with all butter melted.  Set aside to cool a bit while you mix the dry ingredients.

In a large bowl (I like stainless steel bowls), place the flour, sugar, and baking powder.  Whisk together well.


Pour in about one-half of the cocoa/butter/water/salt mixture and stir well with the wooden spoon.

Add remaining cocoa mixture, scraping out pan with rubber spatula, and stir until the batter is smooth.  Add the eggs, one at a time and stirring well after each egg.

Finally, add in the sour cream and stir until completely combined.  Using a rubber spatula, carefully spoon into the prepared bundt pan, scraping the bowl clean.  Don't waste anything!

Place pan in over and bake for 35-45 minutes.

Use a toothpick to check for doneness at 35 minutes.  Leave in longer if necessary.


Remove from oven and let cook on rack for 15 minutes or so.  Using a thin spatula gently release the cake from the edges of pan, then flip over onto the serving plate.  Let cool completely then drizzle on glaze or chocolate fudge icing.

This is the cake after taking big chunks to the church friends:


Cake shortly after I asked Dear One if the cake was okay:



I will that that as a "Yes!"

Mission: Going Well--Transfers Again!

On Monday this week I looked at the calendar and saw that it was Transfers next week.  This means there is a lot to do THIS week to get ready.  Last month I made a check list of things to do before transfers.
This is that check list:
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Before Transfers Check List PACC

      o   Bedding:  2-3 weeks before transfers check inventory, order

      o   new comforters--20 in stock (by which I mean: in the storage garage)

      o   blankets--11 in stock

      o   buy pillows--14 in stock

      o   sheets-11 in stock

      o   Mission-wide email re: cleaning apartment, donating extra stuff

      o   Order Sandwiches 1 week prior to transfer day

      o   Prepare incoming flight info sheet for AP’s

      o   Prepare boarding pass envelopes

      o   Create info check off sheet of missionaries and photos

      o   Print info check off sheet of missionaries and photos for President interviews, nurse interviews, photographs, lunch, bedding

      o   Make a list with the departing missionary emails and arriving missionary emails to update ALL EMAILS list.

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(As you can see, I don't know how to re-format for Blogger.)

The critical thing for THIS week is to order the sandwiches/bag suppers for the incoming missionaries and those who are helping with orientation and other things on the night of the arrival.  That was the thing that I remembered sometime on Tuesday.  Wednesday was when I needed to place the order.  The usual pattern has been to write up the order in Excel then send the order to the Beaverton Sub Station via fax on Wednesday the week before Transfers so Chuck and Gina have plenty of time to get 35 or more sandwiches/suppers ready.  They do a fabulous job.  After the first time, I discovered they make Reuben sandwiches, so that is what I always order for myself.  Two others now also order Reubens!

Sorry about that funky formatting.  Cannot seem to fix it.  Oh well.

SO on Wednesday when I was getting ready to fax the order to Beaverton Sub Station I remembered that since we changed over our phone service to a new provide a month or more ago, our fax machine does not work.  It has something to do with needing some sort of switch.  We have four phone lines coming into the office just like we always did but before I think one was a dedicated fax line.  Now it is not dedicated and we cannot use it for faxing.  We found this out when a missionary mom tried faxing and could not get through but got an error message instead.  The IT people in the office tried with the same result.

This turned out to be a bonus for me as I had to drive down to the Sub Station and bring the order with me.  With 33 sandwiches this time, I thought it was completely inconsiderate to make the Sub Station people take down the order over the phone.  Just could not do it to them. SO....off I went in the car to try to find the place.

Beaverton proper/downtown, has many many one-way streets.  Most are pretty short.  There is not a lot of parking.  Following the GPS I found my way to the Sub Station pretty easily.  There was no parking and the one-way street situation caused me to learn a lot more about downtown Beaverton than I knew before!  Finally the stars aligned and I found a parking spot which was pretty close to the shop. I took in the order and while I was there I came over hungry all of a sudden and went over the edge and ordered a Reuben!  Can you believe it?!  I also ordered an egg sandwich for Dear One's lunch. (He had been out with Elder W looking for new apartments when I left the office so I did not even ask if he wanted to pass on his cinnamon honey paste tortilla sandwich that he has every day for lunch...). I really enjoyed that Reuben. It was worth the stress of finding my way there to the Sub Station.

So, by the end of Thursday all the items on the list were taken care of except the need to get one more set of sheets plus Elder and Sister B are bringing fleece blankets to transfers.  

We have twelve new missionaries coming in this transfer.  Three of them we just learned about last week.  They are "Visa Waiters": missionaries who have been preparing to go to other missions, foreign missions, whose visas are not yet ready.  We have one going to Peru, one to Ecuador, and one to Taiwan.  Our last visa waiters went to the Dominican Republic and Taiwan.  We had one visa waiter months ago whose visa was delayed and delayed and by the time it came he was having such success here that he ended up staying in our mission.