Thursday, April 18, 2013

This morning's sunrise

I left the cabin around 7:30 this morning headed for Darrel and Trina's.  I am helping to watch their kids while Trina goes to California to run in the SoCal Ragnar race.  Kim, and Sheri are going too.  It was after 8:30 by the time I left Show Low.  I stopped to get gas and to wash my car.  It was covered with mud after going into Mutual last night. 

I arrived an hour or so before Trina had to leave.  She went through the schedule with me and showed me where Ruby has swim lessons.  After she left Ruby and I went to Chik-fil-a for lunch. Speaking of lunch, Addy got up early this morning and fixed lunch for herself, her Dad and Rowan.  What a sweet girl!

Ruby watering the plants

Yes that is Ruby at her swim lessons.

Addy and one of her chicks.  They have tripled in size!

Rowan shows off his favorite chick.

We took the kids to Barro's Pizza for dinner.  Rowan wanted so badly to win a stuffed animal.

So close!

While at Barros they started watching the movie Arthur and the Invisibles but didn't get to finish.  I told Rowan I would rent it for him tomorrow evening.

We left around bedtime to go back to Chandler where Paul was brushing Holly's teeth.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

What a powerful way for King Benjamin to end his speech:

"Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable,

always abounding in good works,

that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent,

may seal you his, that you may be 

brought to heaven, that ye may have

everlasting salvation and eternal life,

through the wisdom, and power, and justice, 

and mercy of him who created all things,

in heaven and in earth, 

who is God above all. 

Amen.

I've got the blinds open this morning watching it snow.  It is actually miniscule balls of ice.  Right now it is melting as it lands on the ground.  It is a wintry looking day!  James left around 8 o'clock this morning.  I was sad to see him go.

My tree.

Look at the sky.

I love days like this!

It was an interesting day with schizo weather.  The sun would come out and then it would snow again.  Here is a picture taken in the back where the sun was shining and then in the front where it was cloudy and overcast.

Love those low hanging clouds

We actually ended up with a couple of inches of snow on the ground when the day was over.  It snowed off and on all day long, just enough to make it nice and muddy when I drove to Mutual.

I had a bit of news today before Mutual.  I texted Natalie to ask her if we were going to have a presidency meeting before Mutual tonight.  She sent me a text back that simply said nope.  A few minutes later I got a text that read: "Okay, so I will not be at mutual and I am moving to Utah.  I will be gone and out of AZ by next Thursday.  We are leaving today to go find a house.  Hopefully I will be back by Sunday.  I found this out on Monday so life has been super crazy for me of late.  Bishop knows.  I am so sorry to leave you and the girls and the ward.  I am good with everything else but that make me cry."

It happened so quickly but I can't say I am totally surprised.  I told James the other day I wouldn't be surprised if the Soderquist's moved.  Natalie has not felt well for such a long time and I know she blames it on her allergies to the juniper and cedar trees around here.

Mutual was a combined activity with the young men.  It was also Shelly's 15th birthday.  Kaeli Nicoll and the Beehives were in charge of the activity.  The youth played human foozball.  I took some pictures.  There were 17 boys and 6 girls.

You can't leave your line and you can't use your hands.

Westin Hall playing goalie for Kilee's team.

His brother Kendall was goalie for LeeAnn's team.

LeeAnn kicking the ball.

No hands Tyler!

LeeAnn's team won, 7-6.  After the game we had rocky road ice cream cones in celebration of Shelly's birthday.  It's her favorite flavor.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

When I got up this morning the front door was wide open.  I guess we forgot to lock it before we went to bed and the wind blew it open during the night.  Thank goodness no critters came in.
I studied King Benjamin's address this morning.  I have divided it into 3 parts:  1. Basic principles of good government, 2.Message of the angel concerning the coming of Christ, 3.Things a member of the Church must do to retain a remission of sins.
 I finished putting all of the boxes away that I brought back with me last week and I did a little organizing in the years supply room.  We now have 57 cans of soup and we need 47 more.  I am figuring one meal a week we will use two cans of soup which makes a total of 104 for a year.
I got a call from Karen Schneider today.  It's always nice to hear from good friends.
I made some slow cooker Chile Verde Pork Tacos for dinner.  They were very good, better than this picture looks.

I am not much of a food photographer.

I paid some bills today and worked on my lesson for Young Women's which is entitled: "Why We Need the Book of Mormon."  Although James was able to finish putting my office together he cannot fix the Ranger without some help.  We are dying to go on a ride but I guess we will have to wait a little longer.
I am sad I wasn't able to make it to this guys "Bugs" play today.  It's just one of the drawbacks of not living in Chandler any more.

 The cute bug ever!!

I took this picture off Facebook.  It is the Wilhelm family, an awesome family in our ward.  The oldest daughter, Trenda, is such an awesome young woman.  She is smart, funny, spiritual and very talented.  She is an honor student, loves to sing country music, and she once shot an elk at 600 yards.  Need I say more?

The four year old son, Curtis, has had cancer treatment this past year at Phoenix Children's Hospital.  He is doing better right now.

The John & Sandra Wilhelm family.

James and I watched a good Hallmark movie today starring John Schneider called "Dance at my Wedding."

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."