Monday, February 4, 2013

Happy 63rd Birthday to my brother Harold.  He is a great guy.  He is always so willing to help and is such a good husband, father and grandpa.  Harold, I love you!

I actually packed lunch and dinner for James before he left this morning.  I made him a couple of tuna sandwiches, and put all the left over beans in a container so he could heat them up for dinner.  Also included in his care package: almond cookies, 2 cans of Dr. Pepper, and some honey and cinnamon to go with his herbal tea.

I got a call this morning from my neighbor Kathy Crane.  She told me to look outside and I would see a big herd of elk.  She told me to look out the north window.  It took me awhile to figure out which way was north but when I did this is what I saw:

I counted over 35 and there were still more.

This picture doesn't show you how beautiful they are, especially when they run.

Of course I had to call James and tell him.  He wanted to know how many bulls there were.  Darned if I know.  After talking with him on the phone I looked outside and there was no trace of the herd.

I exercised on my rebounder today while watching the Pioneer Woman cooking show.  She gave some really good ideas for 16 minute meals that I am definitely going to try.

This afternoon I paid bills.  Boy is it ever expensive to be alive.  In order to get me through this ordeal I watched some Hallmark movies.  There are some good ones out there.  My favorite today was: "Notes from the Heart Healer."

I got a call from James this evening.  He seems pretty discouraged because his back is really hurting and on top of working hard all day he has to come home to Chandler and fix a broken waterline.  I told him I loved him and that he should get a good nights sleep and things would look better in the morning.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

It was overcast and even rained a little today.  I am sad because most all of the snow is melted.  When the snow melts and the sun comes out, we live in a mud bog.

During Shelly Applegates (Mia Maid) testimony in sacrament meeting, Brother Sayer, a member of our ward slumped down and passed out.  Brother Applegate, and several other men ran back to help him and carried him out in to the foyer.  We have several firemen in our ward and most of them were the ones who moved in to action, including Collin DeWitt who is the fire chief in Gilbert.  Brother Sayer has a bad heart and he is on medication for it but he has a difficult time sitting straight up in the church pews.  He is going to be okay.

Today in Young Women Tina Allen gave a lesson on dealing with adversity.  Before the lesson started I handed out these journals for the girls to take notes in:

 Stand in Holy Places is the 

2013 Mutual theme

At home we fasted until around 4pm and then we ate dinner  After dinner and cleanup we read our scriptures and had family home evening.  Since the youth are learning about the plan of salvation this month we studied that section of Preach My Gospel.  We got about half way finished because we read all of the accompanying scriptures.  Afterwards we watched my favorite TV show, Downton Abbey.  

Oh yes, the Ravens beat the 49ers in the Superbowl.  We didn't watch but I guess the power went out for about 34 minutes. 

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Joshua wanted to know if the groundhog saw his shadow today so we checked the weather in York, Pennsylvania.  Since it was snowing we figured the groundhog did not see his shadow and that meant we would have an early spring.  He was happy with that answer.

I worked in the yard this morning picking up all the piles of leaves I left yesterday.  Dallin and Michael came out to help me and Michael made two trips to the dump with James.  If feels good to have so much of the cleanup done but I am so sad that everything in the yard is dead. 

Around 11 am I went in to Big Two Toyota to co-sign on a car loan for Jared Ammon.  I am confident he will make the payments but he just doesn't have any credit yet.  He is working two jobs and his payment is only $200 a month. 

I stopped at Chik-fil-a and got some nuggets and strips to take to Max's football game.  Since James didn't make it to the game I shared the nuggets with Sheri, Ian and her friend Kahuea and her boys.  I saved James some strips.  Max's team lost.

Evanism: As he and his Mom drive past In n Out Burger Evan says: " Man, I love that place.  It makes my taste buds burst."

On the way home to Vernon I picked up KayLynn Hunsaker Riley and her daughter Cali.  They are riding home with me.  KayLynn is babysitting for her parents while they go to The World of Concrete show in Las Vegas.  She is a cute girl and I enjoyed visiting with her.  We got home around 6 pm. 

When I walked in the door at home James had a cup of hot peppermint tea for me.  He had a fire in the fireplace and he unloaded my car for me.  Such service.  Oh yes, he also bought me a green chile burro from Burger House which I had for dinner.  After settling in we sat down to watch some TV.  We watched two of James's favorite shows: "Person of Interest" and "Elementary."  I am afraid I fell asleep.

Friday, February 1, 2013

We survived another month!  Thank goodness for a hardworking husband.  His back is really bothering him right now.  He has been crawling around in Troy Andersen's attic which certainly doesn't help.

James and I were able to have scriptures together this morning.  We have each been using our scripture apps on our phones to keep up but it's nice to sit down and actually read together. 

It was a nice sunny day here in Chandler with the high in the low 70's.  I worked outside in the yard.  Stacy and Paul used my car to go to a special program at Joshua's school where he was awarded student of the month in his class.  When Josh came home from school he told us all about groundhog day.  Here he is with his groundhog hat on:

I love this kid!

I had to stop my working in the yard, go in and take a shower and pick up a check at Bob Horne's and take it to the bank.  I didn't mind because the check was for over $12,000.  

When I went back to work in the yard Paul and his boys came out to help.  When they were finished there was a huge pile of dead branches in the middle of the yard.  I raked leaves out of the planters but had to quit early because I was hurting.  I will have to finish in the morning.

Trina got another tortoise for Rowan today.  His name is Leo II.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

I left Vernon at 9am.  These are the snacks I took with me to help me survive the trip:

Road snacks.

My first stop was at Deseret Book.  I went back a second time to look at the jewelry they have for young women.  I still like the bracelet I picked out before.  I called our Young Women's president to see if she wanted me to buy the bracelets and she said to hold off.  That's fine.  Our first birthday isn't until March. (The bracelets are for the girls birthdays.)

Other stops I made before arriving at 108th Way: Staples, the bank, Sam's Club, and Joshua's school to pick him up.  He says he has a stomach ache but we soon discovered that he was faking it in order to get out of school.  He told me if he must anymore school they might kick him out.  I hope that isn't his goal.

I started raking dead leaves in the yard.  Our yard looks like a blight hit it.  Everything, and I mean everything is dead.  The only green thing I could find was a weed.  James came home and said he needed someone to go help him at the Chandler airport for an hour or two on the Horne job.  Dallin and Michael refused, Ben said he didn't feel like it, and Alex and Joe were going to a Brian Regan show with Kim and Brian.  I didn't want him to have to go alone so I went with him.  We swept off and sprayed off the new concrete and it took about 2 hours.  I got to spray the hose so I didn't mind so much.  Afterwards we went to El Pollo Loco for some of their delicious chicken.  We ordered it to go because we were definitely not dressed to go in.

While working at the airport we got the news that Rowan's tortoise Leo died.  Rowan is heart broken.  He even went and dug him up after he had been buried to make sure he was still there and hadn't been resurrected.  He is such a tender, sensitive little boy.

Joshua said something funny to me this evening.  Stacy was upset with Dallin because he had locked himself in the basement and she was yelling at him to unlock the door.  Joshua came over to me and said:

"You don't want to be around Stacy when she gets her temperature up."  I think he meant temper.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

I read this quote today by Thomas B. March in the Ensign:  "Are you willing to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season?"  After joining the Church has wrote a letter to some relatives and asked them this question. 

James and I have had some setbacks recently.  Our attorney has convinced us to close the Norquay case.  To settle with no money for us.  It doesn't seem fair or just but what else can we do.  In spite of the fact that they owe us $60,000.  James was quite upset at first but now he says he just feels at peace and can let it go.  I am glad of that because a situation like this can certainly take away your peace of mind. 

There was a last minute change for mutual tonight.  We were suppose to deliver wood but I guess no one needed any so Kaeli and I played games with the girls.  I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  They seemed a little dry so I added some sour cream and the girls loved them.!  Trenda was quite entertaining this evening.  She was giving chinese manicures speaking in her version of chinese. 

 "Would You Rather..." and chocolate chip cookies.

Trenda gives Kaeli a chinese manicure.

 Brother Smith enjoying his manicure.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

School in Show Low started two hours late today because of the snow and the ice on the roads.  I don't remember that ever happening when I was in school.  The worst snow storm I remember was in 1967.  There was 4 foot of snow on the ground in Show Low and Brother Wilhelm said there was 8 foot of snow in Vernon.  I remember coming home for Christmas when James and I were in college.  It was a few months before we were married and James had a little white Chevy Corvair and he was coming up to Show Low with me for Christmas.  We had another passenger whose family lived in Show Low, Irene Louie who was our age.  Her Dad owned the Asia Gardens chinese restaurant in Show Low and she needed a ride home for the holidays.  That was a scary drive but we made it safely.  I remember the snow being piled 12 foot high in the middle of town.

James is out of his blood pressure medicine Nefedical.  I got his 90 day supply in the mail today but won't get it down to him until Thursday. 

I mad a long trip in to town today.  I spent well over an hour in the Verizon store.  All I went in for was to get a data card for my Xoom.  First I didn't know the password on the account and we had to call James and setup another password because he didn't know it either. There were some other problems on the account and we never did get them resolved.  Because of all the trouble Dustin, the store manager waived my $30 start up fee. 

My next stop was LaCasita for lunch by myself.  I had a tamale and a diet coke and some chips.  Yummy.    I picked up prescriptions at Walgreens and then did some grocery shopping at Walmart before heading home.    I got home about two hours later than I expected and I am afraid I wasn't much good for anything the rest of the day.  I sat and watched TV and played with my Xoom.  I watched "The Good Witch's Garden."

My car when I left for town:

NIce and clean.

A coat of mud.

On my way home.