Monday, April 15, 2013

Today is tax day for most Americans but not for us.  James always files an extention. 
I am so happy to have James here!  This is the first time in a long time that he has been here with me on a week day.  He worked on anchoring the book shelves onto the wall in my office.  My office is all set up now and ready for me to begin putting my things away.  We made a trip to town around lunch time.  The Crane's told us how good the carne asada was at Licano's so I've been anxious to try a carne asada burro.  It did not disappoint.  I ordered it with green chili sauce and it was delicious.  We saw the Peeler's and their daughter Serena and our bishop's wife, Denise Hall.  After lunch we headed for the new store C-A-L.  James has looked at several places in the valley, including Cabela's and Bass Pro Shop for primers for the gun reloader he got for Christmas and everywhere he goes they have been out.  He was so excited when the guy was willing to sell him two boxes.  He had more but that's all he would sell at this time.  We also went to the bank, Walmart, and Old Desert Title so James could get the title for his truck. 

A tragedy at the Boston Marathon today.  Two pressure cooker bombs went off near the finish line killing 3 people, including an 8 year old boy and injuring 124 more people.  It looks like an act of terrorism, either foreign or domestic.

For dinner James and I had pork chops and broccoli and for dessert a buttermilk pie.  I got the recipe off Facebook. 

Sunday, April 14, 2013

James and I left for stake conference around 9 o'clock this morning.  We picked up Chuck Crane on our way out.  His wife Kathy left early this morning to sing in the stake choir.  We sat in the front section of the cultural hall.  As we sat down several other people from Vernon joined us on our row.  We had the Peeler's, the Lauritzen's and the DeWitt's all on our row.  We looked around and just in our area we counted 40 people from our ward.  We also saw Randy and Debbie Tenney and their son Jarom. 

If the theme for stake conference last night was families and temple work, today it was missionary work.  The first speaker was a teenage girl name Annika Robinson who was just recently baptized.  She was most impressive and very sincere in her testimony of the gospel.  She said she had to give up her relationship with her dad in order to become a member of the Church.  She said the gospel means everything to her.  ( She is a beautiful young woman and I am sure there were boys in the audience who took notice.) 
After Annika spoke the next speaker was her mother who was baptized a little while after Annika.  Sister Robinson shared her testimony and then she thanked her daughter for saving their family.  It was quite touching.
Other speakers in this session: Miranda Jones, a recently returned missionary from the Leeds, England mission.  Denise and Kevin Smith of the Tempe mission presidency and our entire stake presidency, President Danny Crandall, President Ken Van Winkle, and President Steven Williams.  President Williams issued a challenge to the members of our stake to read the entire Book of Mormon before the next stake conference six months from now.  It was a great stake conference.

Before going back home we drove out to Harold & Vickie's and Dennis & Denise's.   Today is Kyle's daughter Marlee's 4th birthday and they are having a big party for her at Dennis & Denise's.(Kyle is my brother Dennis's son.)  We just stopped in to say hi and I grabbed a piece of pizza.  We would have stayed longer but we were tired and I have to come back into town this evening at 6 o'clock for stake auxiliary training. 

Went home and took a nap and did a little gospel study before leaving for my stake meeting.  Kaeli Nicoll and Ann Miller rode with me.  Kaeli and I were the only ones from young women's in our ward that attended.  It was a great meeting.  I especially appreciated the training done by our high councilman and the Show Low seminary teacher, Brother Redmond.  Kaeli and I came away recharged and motivated.  We are a little worried about Natalie.

James's sister Carmen posted this on the internet and I am posting it here on my blog.  This is back before Carmen, and Rebecca.  Dawn is the baby.

The George Oran Lambson Family

Saturday, April 13, 2012

The highlight of my day was going to Rowan and Evan's soccer game.  Joshua rode over with me and we met Ian, Evan, Trina, Rowan, Addy, Ruby, and James.  James, Addy, Ruby, Joshua and I found a shade tree up a little hill from the game.  It gave us the relief we needed from the sun.  Evan and Rowan are on the Purple Pirates team.  The game ended up in a tie but both boys gave it their all.  It was so cute, when Evan was out of the game he would come up on the hill and sit by us. 

Rowan is 2 and Evan is 8.

Taking a break with a little refreshment.

In other news today, I finished fertilizing the backyard, watered it, and finished sweeping the leaves off the backporch.  I also loaded 12 boxes in my car to take home.  

James and I drove home after the soccer game.  We went the Globe way and I ordered our burros from Burger House.  James gets the mixed green and I get the just green.  Delicious!!  

On another note there was some kind of motorcycle event today.  I saw lots of bikers.  At one of the restaurants in downtown Miami there was a big sign that said: LOOSE CANNON BIKE RUN.  Lots of bikes parked in front.  Here is just a small sampling of what I saw today:

Bikers doing the Loose Cannon Bike Run.

In other news Hunter Jensen, son of Laurie and Curt Jensen had his Eagle Scout Project today and here are some of the people who helped.

That's Dianna Dowdle in the front.

Michael and Sarah Sokevieta, former members of our ward in Chandler did the Warrior Dash today.

Does this look like fun to you?

Not me.

James and I got home at the same time, 3:30.  By 4:15 James was on his way to the priesthood leadership session of stake conference with Owen Peeler and Chuck Crane.

At 6:00 Kathy Crane picked me up and we also picked up Stefani Hunsaker, and Donna Peeler and we all rode together to the adult session of stake conference where we met our husbands.

Much of the conference was focused on families and the temple.  The highlight for me was two 18 year old boys who just received their mission calls singing "Come Unto Christ."  

On the way home from conference we rode with Kathy and Chuck Crane.  They wanted to stop at Dairy Queen for dinner so we did and saw several other people from conference there, including our friends the Peelers.  When we left Dairy Queen Chuck pulled out into the center yellow lined lane and waited for traffic.  A mile or so down the road he was stopped by a police officer who informed him that the yellow lane is only for left turns.  We all learned something and thank goodness Chuck only got a warning.

We went home and went to bed so we would be ready for another session of conference in the morning.

Friday, April 12, 2013

I got to have family prayer with James this morning.  I went outside in the yard to work and saw Ben riding his bicycle to school.  I wish I could have gotten a picture, but he was going pretty fast.  I fertilized 1/4 of the backyard and sweep some leaves off the porch before I had to stop and get ready to go to Brake Masters.  They evaluated my brakes and said the front were 90% gone and the back were 95% gone. Wow! It's a miracle that I made it off the mountain! They used the pads I bought at Toyota for the back brakes and their pads for the front.  They say theirs have a lifetime guarantee but Erik says their pads make the routers were out faster.  They also said this would be the last time they could rotate the routers.  I left my car at 9 and they didn't finish until after noon.  I spent some time at the McDonald's at Walmart and the rest of the time waiting in the Brake Master waiting room.  It felt good to get some brakes. Now I am sure to drive home safely!  Next month it will be the 120,000 mile checkup.
This afternoon I went to the biggest candy store in Arizona which just happens to be in Chandler on Chandler Blvd. and Alma School Rd.  What a fun place to shop!  I bought some chocolate gold coins to give to my young women along with the pocket-sized Book of Mormons I got for them.  I am going to tell them that there are hidden treasures in the Book of Mormon that they must look for.

Sweeties here I come!

Any kind of candy you can imagine.

Rows and rows of suckers.

Such a fun store to shop in!

I though I would post a picture of James's truck. He really likes it since he got new tires, although I say it still rides a little rough.

2010 Dodge Ram 4x4.

And last but certainly not least I wanted to share this conference quote from Richard G. Scott:

"One of the greatest blessings we can offer to the world is the power of a Christ-centered home where the gospel is taught, covenants are kept and love abounds."

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Happy 15th anniversary to Dennis and Denise and Happy 22nd Birthday to Jeffrey Maxwell.

Looking outside you would never know we had 4 inches of snow on Tuesday.  It's all melted.  I got already to leave for the valley this morning.  I left the cabin around 1pm.  My first stop was Show Low Motorsports where I paid over $150 for a belt for the Ranger.  Next I went to Walmart, Taco Bell, and then to get gas.  I am stalling, waiting for James to collect money from Troy and Brenda Andersen so I can deposit it in our National Bank account.  Our vehicle insurance comes out of that account tomorrow and I want to make sure we are covered.  While I was waiting for James to call, I took some pictures of the ominous clouds in the sky.

Looks like rain doesn't it.

Finally James deposited the money in our Chase account so I could make the deposit into National Bank.  Afterwards I was finally on my way.  It was around 3pm when I left.  I went the Globe way because I heard a rumor there was 10 inches of snow on the rim.  It doesn't melt as fast there as it does here.  

I arrived in Chandler around 6pm, just in time to take Alex to dinner for his birthday.  His choice: Red Lobster.  

Alex loves seafood!

James and I went for a walk this evening to try and burn off some of the calories we consumed at dinner.  We walked in the neighborhood across the street on the sidewalk.  When we got home Joshua was watching Brave.  I brought it down for him.  The kid loves that movie!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Sunrise and Snow:

My kind of day, although the weather has been kind of crazy!

I spent the afternoon preparing for tonight's young women meeting on Personal Progress.  I have no idea where any of the girls are on their Personal Progress, but I intend on finding out.  I made one of these charts for each of the girls:

 Shelly's chart.  She's self-motivated.

I also took brownies and ice cream for the girls after we are finished with Personal Progress.

Brother Mayfield is a real gentleman.  Not only did he open the door for me at the church but he carried my stuff down to the kitchen for me.  We had two new girls attend tonight, Kelly and Karla Reynolds.  Kelly is a Beehive and Karla is a Mia Maid.  Kelly is going to be in our ward but Karla lives with her mom in Grants, New Mexico.  She was just here visiting on spring break.  Also Cody Ianola was here and says she will now be in our ward.  Her mom is in our ward but she has been living with her dad in Linden and just visits us once in awhile.  Trenda was our only regular girl who wasn't here tonight.  Her brother Talon didn't know why she didn't come.  Mary is 18 and not interested in Personal Progress.  I gave her a challenge to read one chapter from the Book of Mormon a day.  She said she would.  

Sheri posted this picture of Max on Facebook and I just had to copy it.

Max and his fauxhawk.

Michael Gonzales

My daily dose of drugs.

That's enough random posts for now.

 

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

I woke to snow this morning.  Everything was covered and before it was finished it looked like it snowed about 4 inches.

 My favorite tree.

It looks like Christmas again.

View from the front door.

Back view.

Dining room window.

It snowed all morning then in the afternoon it began to clear up and by the end of the day all of the snow was gone.  It melts quickly in the springtime.

I began preparing for tomorrow's Personal Progress night with the young women.  I just found out I will be the only leader there.  Kaeli has to work and Natalie has an adoption meeting.  

I worked out on my mini-tramp this evening while watching Dancing With the Stars.  Brad Paisley performed.  He has a paisley decorated guitar.  Lisa Vanderpump and Gleb went home.  I liked Gleb.  He's cute.  Andre Boccelli and Jennifer Lopez sang together.  An odd combination in my opinion.  

 One more picture of my favorite tree before the snow melted.