Monday, January 28, 2013

James took this picture near Forest Lakes on the Rim today on his way back to the valley.

Don't take pictures while you are driving Honey!

I took these pictures here at home.  We don't have quite as much snow.

It's only just begun.

Soon the trees will be frosted.

I am calling this Crisis week.  Thank goodness for the gospel and an eternal perspective.  

Sheri's washer went kaput.

Stacy and Paul's car is on the blitz.

James is out of his blood pressure meds because of the slowness of Dr. Wilson's office.

Our propane, which heats our house in on less than 10%.

Evan has pink eye.

Dave & Laura's granddaughter Kenna is in the hospital with RSV.

Some how all of this too shall pass.

I spent the day home alone cleaning, studying, trying to get some exercise in on my rebounder, and watching a little TV.  I started watching a series of 5 episodes called "The Good Witch" which I am really enjoying.  It is a show with a moral that you can actually watch with your kids.

 

Sunday, January27, 2013

Brother Redmond of the high council and also the Show Low seminary teacher spoke in our sacrament meeting today.  The topic of his talk was based on Elder Oaks's talk "Focus and Priorities."  It was the assigned topic talk for all high councilmen this month.  He said we need to make wise use of the technology we have and he reminded us that we need quiet time for imspiration and revelation when we unplug from the world in order to hear the voice of the Lord.  He said that with the flood of filth in the world today the Lord is sending shafts of light and he encouraged us to check out the Church's website.  Our priorities determine what we seek in life.  "If you have not chosen the gospel of Jesus Christ it won't matter what you have chosen." - Elder Neal A. Maxwell.  His last statement was that the highest knowledge we gain in this life is in the temple.  I loved his talk.  I can see why he is the seminary teacher!

I visited with Lannie Gillespie and shared the visiting teaching message with her while she was setting up for our Sunday School class.  She said she would be too busy this week for a visit.  She is the assistant superintendent of Navajo county schools and goes back and forth to Holbrook quite a bit.  She told me about teaching youth who have been incarcerated and what a special challenge that it.  She has a huge responsibility with her job but she is a highly capable person and an excellent teacher!  I love learning from her.  When she teaches us how to teach she always uses the scriptures.

Natalie Soderquist gave the lesson in Young Women today on the Savior and did an excellent job.  She gave the girls several challenges: read the Book of Mormon in 3 months, a list of sciptures to read to complete the value experiences 5 and 6 in faith, and she gave us each a small laminated copy of The Living Christ and The Family Proclomation to put in our scriptures.  We studied The Living Christ in class.  She also gave the girls footprint sugar cookies with an attachment that said : "We are adding two feet in our family" which is to announce their adoption in June. I gave each of the girls The First Article of Faith candle and taught the object lesson.

 First Article of Faith, Light of the World candle

James went home teaching to the Hunsaker's today and took Holly her birthday Snickers bars and Holly and Kilee each a candle.  When he returned he spent over an hour washing my car and cleaning the mud out of the garage and driveway.  Normally he would not do this on Sunday, but this week it was the only day he had at home.  I do so appreciate his efforts!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

We woke up to rain, and it looks like it probably rained most of the night and shows no signs of stopping any time soon.  James, Kim and I had planned on going to the temple this morning but Kim texted me during the night with the news that the temple is closed until February 4th.  I guess next time I better check before I schedule a family temple day.

Joshua got up early today to enjoy the rain.  Before going out to splash in the puddles he enjoyed a Capri Sun as part of his breakfast.

 Joshua and his best buddy Skittles.

We had also planned on going to Max's football game but obviously it was cancelled too.  James and I packed up and left for home before noon.  It rained on us most all of the way.  I guess it's not cold enough for snow in the high country.  We had to stop in Payson and put air in my tires.  Thank goodness James was there to do it for me this time.

Unloading and unpacking is never much fun.  I guess I was a little grumpy about it, but James was very patient.  He likes the earphones I got him to use with his phone for his birthday.

 Now he can listen to 60's music to his

hearts content.

 Once everything was unpacked we relaxed and watched a little TV.  Rizzoli & Isles, and a Hallmark special that was really good called "The Lost Valentine" starring Betty White.

I love taking pictures here at our home in Vernon.

This rainbow was complete but I just took pictures

of the two ends

Friday, January 25, 2012

I read this today in the scriptures and it made me wonder which one I am.  "...lto be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal." 2 Nephi 9:39

I got up early this morning and typed the invoice James emailed to Troy Andersen.  Since I was up I decided to get ready and go do my grocery shopping for James's party tonight.  I came home and cut all ten of the chicken breasts in half the long ways and put them in a marinate of dijon mustard, honey, lemon juice, paprika and red chili flakes.  With the chicken taken care of, at least for now, I began making two Eagle Brand lemon pies.  They are James's favorite and the only dessert that he requested.  I used lots of lemons to get a cup of lemon juice.  Once the pies were baked and cooled I set them in the frig and decided I had earned a nap.

After my nap they kids were home from school.  I went outside and took these pictures:

Shoeless Evan on his electric racer.

I'm not sure why this mound of dirt is in the orchard

but it's a fun place for Josh and Max to play.

Around 3:30 I started frying bacon for my chicken, bacon and cheese sandwiches.  I didn't like how this particular brand of bacon was frying up so I made a quick trip to Fry's to get a different brand.  My quick trip put me behind.  Stacy and James ended up helping me assemble and wrap the sandwiches.  The chicken took a little longer to cook than I anticipated.  Dallin and his friend Kevin provided background musci while I cooked.

Dawn and Lois joined us at Darrel & Trina's for dinner, a tribute to James, and music by Dallin, Michael and Dallin's friend Kevin. 

I made 22 sandwiches and came home with 5.  Everyone seemed to love them.  After dinner we talked about James and the good guy that he is and then Michael and Dallin sang a Guster song.  Next Dallin played and sang a song he wrote.  It was a fun evening.  Thanks to Darrel and Trina for letting us invade their homes. 

 Dallin and Kevin practicing

Listening to the guys sing and play.

Is that Sheri playing with her phone during the concert?

Michael sang too.

In other news, Kim gave me my 2013 Grandkids calender.  Of course Anna's picture is up for January.  I look forward to this calender every year!! 

Joshua came home from school and said he was student of the month and get to go to the office to get his picture taken.  There will be some kind of ceremony next Friday.  He said it was easy to be student of the month.  "All you have to do is obey all of the rules."  Out of the mouths of babes.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

I was up at 5am to take my shower and get ready to leave for the valley.  I didn't completely winterize but went outside to turn the pump and water off.  I left the house at 6am.  I stopped in Show Low for gas and to run my car through the carwash.  I stopped at the Circle K in Star Valley for a drink and to put some air in my tires.  I arrived at Dr. Douglas's office in Chandler for my 10am appointment exactly at 10am.  It was exactly 200 miles from our place to her office. 

Today I am having a filling put in and they are doing the prep work for a crown  It was a two hour appointment and I had my mouth open most of the time while they poked, prodded, drilled and ground on my teeth.  You would think this kind of torture would discourage me from eating sweets, etc., but no such luck. 

It was rainy and cool today.  The perfect day for doing some yardwork.  Everything in our once beautiful yard is dead and overgrown.  It looks terrible.  I worked for a couple of hours and cut back one lantana bush and cleaned up all of the dead growth around it.  There are only about 20 more bushes to go!

My Motorola Xoom tablet that I ordered last week arrived.  I do not have the slightest idea how to even turn it on so I went over to Dave & Laura's for a lesson.  Dave has a projector he attaches to his Xoom and he can show church videos on the wall.  He uses it for his calling as a high councilman. He taught me alot but now I realize I am going to have to go to Verizon and order a data package because we do not have wi-fi at home.  I am going to look in to getting satellite internet.

James and I had dinner at Applebee's this evening.  I had tomato basil soup and the spinach shrimp salad which is delicious.  We spent the evening at Sheri's typing up an invoice for Troy Andersen so James can collect some money tomorrow.  I watched the godfather episode of Modern Family with Max. 

Evan asleep on the couch.

Max carrying Evan to bed.

Max in disguise.

Wednesday, January 23, 2012

Happy 65th Birthday James!  In his own words he is "officially old."  He is the love of my life and has done more for me than anyone else in the world.  He has such a desire to please me and make me happy and I am here to report that he does just that.  I love you Honey!  I will see you tomorrow and then we will party at Trina and Darrel's Friday night.

I read one of President Eyring's conference talks from the last general conference about a family journal he keeps.  He calls it "The Small Plates."  In it he records the personal successes and services rendered by family members.  I love that idea and would like to do something similar for our family.

This evening for Mutual we had six girls attend: Kilee and LeeAnn Hunsaker, Jordyn and Shelly Applegate, and Arizona Hill and Ashley Daniels.  While Kaeli Nicoll was talking about family history and indexing I noticed that Ashley was missing.  I told Brother Soderquist who came by to bring a laptop computer and he and Brother Smith went out looking for her.  Arizona's brother Keegan was missing from the young men's group.  I believe Ashley and Keegan were somewhere together.  She came back and a few minutes later said she needed to go outside and talk to her grandmother who was waiting in her car.  Brother Smith followed her out and she was back just a few minutes later.  Her grandmother was not outside in her car because after our meeting was over she needed a ride home with Sister Nicoll.  This girl was sent up here to live with her grandmother because she got in trouble at home.  Now she is looking for trouble up here.  I wonder if there is something we can do to help her.  

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Today I went visiting teaching to Linda Diewald.  She had a birthday this month so I took here a treat and a journal.  My partner, Eileen Duggins met me there.  We went a little early and didn't stay too long because Eileen's husband Phil is having surgery on his right shoulder today.  He was a truck driver for years and has some bone spurs that need to be removed from all of his "shifting" days.  The doctor says it will be about 3 months recovery time.  It's a good thing Eileen is so independent and can do just about anything.  She ran her own construction company for years.

This afternoon I visited Hailey and Hope Lootans with Natalie Soderquist.  Hailey is a Mia Maid and Hope is a Beehive.  Since they don't usually come on Sunday's I took them my candle handout and gave them a little object lesson.  We are concerned about Hailey because she seems to like girls instead of boys, something  we probably need to make the bishop aware of.  Hailey and Hope have 4 dogs, 3 dachsunds and a larger mutt.  The "mutt" nipped my heel on the way in and again on the way out.  No one else noticed and I refrained from screaming out because I didn't want to make a scene.  It hurt.  Luckily he didn't break the skin.

Visiting in Vernon requires a lot of gas.  Most people live at least 5 miles away or more.  Today was no exception.