Monday, April 29, 2013

There were three or four elk in the yard this morning when I got up to study.  Of course I had to tell James and he had to get up to see them. 
We have never had a final inspection on the cabin.  James scheduled one for today.  I hurried around to get the house clean and then took a shower and put on some makeup and did my hair so I would be presentable.  When they came I was in the bedroom working on the computer.  James said they would want to inspect the entire house, but that didn't prove to be true.  They came in and said how nice it was and then one of the guys asked James if he liked living here and James said yes.  The guy then said: "Good, then we will give you a certificate of occupancy."  Well that was easy.  To celebrate we went into town for lunch at Licanos.  I mixed things up a little today and had red sauce on my carne asada burro.  It was good but I like the green sauce better.  We also stopped at Ace Hardware and got some more potting soil. 
The weather was gorgeous today with the high around 75.  It is 100 in the valley. 
Watched The Mentalist with James this evening.  The season finale is next week.  Will we find out who Red John is?  I hope so.
Here is a picture of tonight's sunset.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

I was up very early to study.  I made a chart of why we needed the Restoration and listed the events in history leading up to it.  Elder Robert D. Hales gave a talk in a general conference about the apostasy and restoration that was very helpful.  James had high council meeting this morning but made it back in time for our sacrament meeting.
Jackson Allen was the youth speaker.  He just turned 14 and I was surprised that the bishopric had him speak on dating standards.  Sandra Kuper was the first speaker after Jackson  Her husband was also supposed to speak but she said his truck broke down and he was stranded, so Bishop Hall filled in and did an awesome job.  Sandra spoke on keeping the commandments and specifically mentioned the command to keep the sabbath day holy.  Bishop Hall read Helaman 5:12 and then spoke on the importance of families and building our families on the rock of our Redeemer.  It was really good.
The lesson in Sunday School was on the law of consecration.  We decided that we live this law today but it's different than when the early saints were asked to live it.
I was the only Young Women leader in our ward today and I had 13 girls come.  Never since I was called has there been that many girls!  There were the regulars: Jordyn and Shelly Applegate, Trenda Wilhelm, Mary Swift, and Kilee and LeeAnn Hunsaker.  There was also Hope Lootans, Kelly Reynolds (new), Cody Ianoli (Sandra Kuper's daughter), Maddy Carroll (new), MaKenzi Hunsaker, Arizona Hill and Hannah Borrego.  All of these girls are members of our ward except Hannah who lives with her Mom in Show Low.  Her dad is the fire chief here in Vernon.
After the block I sat with James in the cultural hall while he home taught sister Lorraine Vaught.  We went home and had some Hormel chili for lunch and then laid down to take naps.  James's nap was cut short because he went home teaching to the Peeler's and the Hunsaker's. 
This evening for FHE we watched a couple of the videos from the Church's Worldwide Leadership training broadcast.  Afterwards we watched a Hallmark movie "Remember Sunday" starring Alexis Bledel and Zachary Taylor. 
In local news a woman was attacked by a rabid bobcat near Lowe's this evening.  She literally threw him to the ground to escape.  Of course she had to have rabies shots but she is doing ok. 

Evan lost a tooth today.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

I was up at 4am to get ready to go to the temple with the young women.  We met at the church at 5:30.  Here is a list of all those who went: Adults: Bishop Hall, Brothers Applegate, Dewitt, Miller, Mel Wilhelm, and Blaine Curtis, Diana Curtis, Alicia Hunsaker, and myself.  Young women: MaKenzi Hunsaker, Mary Swift, Trenda Wilhelm, Jordyn and Shelly Applegate, Kilee and LeeAnn Hunsaker.  Young men: Westin Hall, Aaron Windsor, Tyler Hunsaker, Talon Wilhelm and Jace Applegate.  Shelly and Jordyn rode with me.  Shelly had a church music CD she had gotten for her birthday that she played for us on the way. 
The first thing we always do when we get to the temple is have a devotional with one of the couples in the temple presidency.  This time it was President Johnson and his wife.  Sister Johnson told a story about President Johnson loving her homemade tacos.  One day they were going home to make tacos when they got a call that their great grandson Camden was in town.  They had to make a choice: go home and make tacos or go see Camden.  They chose Camden.  The moral of the story: Camden is always better than tacos, which translates to: Going to the temple is always better than something else we could do on a Saturday morning.
Of course after the temple Shelly, Jordyn and I had to go to El Cupido's to get something to eat.  Others from our group who were there: Bishop and Westin, Mary, and the Curtis's.
When I got home I took a nap and then got up and made white chocolate macadamian nut cookies for our ward party tonight.  Neither James nor I felt like going to the party but James delivered the cookies.  The Primary sponsored this party.  They are playing kickball and having a picnic at the park.
I got a call from Tina Allen this evening.  She is scheduled to teach the lesson in Young Women tomorrow but her mom is going to have a triple bypass so she is going to the valley and would like me to teach.  Well I guess it's a good thing I didn't go to the ward party.  Spent the evening preparing for a lesson on the apostasy and restoration.  Went to bed early and decided to finish my lesson prep in the morning.
In other news, I finished the Book of Mormon today.  This is the second time through for this year.  I love that book!
Today was prom here in Show Low.  Here are some pictures of Mary Swift, one of my young women, and her date Dallin Crandell, Kaytlynn Maxwell and her date, and Colby Maxwell and his date.

Mary and Dallin

This was Mary and Kaytlynn's group.  Kaytlynn is

Monte (my nephew) & Tasha's daughter and she is standing 

next to Mary. Her date was Josh Larsen.

Colby and his date.

Colby is my nephew Brian's son.

Vickie said he was a little upset because he had to 

wait for his date so long that they missed 

their reservations for dinner.

Friday, April 26, 2013

My visiting teacher, Alicia Hunsaker came by for a visit this morning at 9am.  We had a nice visit and then I had a meeting with Diana Curtis and Kaeli Nicoll about Young Women's.  Diana is the activity chairman for the Relief Society and we are scheduled to have a Relief Society, Young Women activity in May.  Natalie had wanted the RS to help make frozen dinners for a fundraiser.  This is the first that Kaeil and I had heard of it.  We weren't sure that's what we wanted to do.  We scheduled a time, May 22nd, and then told Diana we would get back with her about what the activity would be.  We need to meet with Brother Smith first and find out what our budget is and how much camp is going to cost.  Kaeli and I met after Diana left.  We made a Sunday teaching schedule and talked about plans for camp.  All of this is a bit overwhelming considering I have not been called to be the Young Women's president.
After everyone left James and I made a trip into town.  Of course we stopped for lunch at our favorite restaurant, La Casita and then James went to Home Depot and I went to Walmart.  While shopping in Walmart I ran in to an old Chandler friend, Pam Lucas.  Pam now lives in Snowfake and owns a home in Queen Creek.  She has at least ten kids.  Several years ago she and her husband Dale were in a car accident and Dale was killed leaving her with 6 kids still at home.  Well now she has only two kids at home, twins, a boy and a girl, who are seniors in high school.  She says that once they are gone she will probably move back to the valley to be closer to her kids and grandkids.  She has 39 grand children.  She makes 3 or 4 trips to the valley each month just like I do.  Kim was friends with her daughter Shawna, Darrel knew Tanner, and Sheri her daughter Becky.  A really neat family.  I went to Dale's funeral and it was one of the nicest tributes to a Dad that I have ever seen.  Those kids loved their Dad.  It was so nice to reconnect with Pam and we exchanged phone numbers. She lives in the subdivision near the Snowflake temple on the golf course.
Here is a picture of James's reloading table he made:

A nice addition to our deck.

Elk in our yard.  Can you see them?

Tonight's sunset.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

I got up this morning and watered the back yard again.  I just hate the fact that I fertilized it and no one has been watering.  Around 9:30 Sheri picked me up and we went to the new Phoenix Outlet Malls on the other side of interstate 10 near Wild Horse Pass.  Very close if you live in Chandler or Ahwatukee.

Fashionista and superb shopper Sheri.

I bought a new black purse at Nine West that cost me about the same as if I had bought it at Target.  I also bought some luxury Egyptian cotton sheets with 1500 thread count for half the price of the ones I like at Sams Club.  It was a good shopping day.  I want to come back though because all of the stores weren't open yet.

 The Nine West plate is on the other side.

We were tired and hungry after our shopping adventure so we went to Firebirds for lunch.  I got my usual: the coconut shrimp appetizer with mango coleslaw.  We ordered chocolate sundaes for dessert and thoroughly enjoyed their delicious sour dough bread.  I am so glad I got to spend some time with Sheri!

The rest of the afternoon I did a few chores around the house and waited for James to finish taking care of the plumbing problem at Andersen's.  He offered his services for free today just because that's the nice kind of guy he is.  We didn't leave for home until after 7pm.  We tried to order from Burger House but we missed their closing time (8pm) by 15 minutes.  What restaurant closes at 8pm?  I guess one in a small town.

We had to settle for Taco Bell.  I didn't enjoy my crunch wrap as much as I thought I would.  I guess I was thinking about green chili burros from Burger House.

We got home around 10:30, unloaded the truck and went to bed.  Here is a picture of the full moon I tried to take as we were leaving Mesa.

The real thing was very grandiose.

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

We were off to Phoenix before 8 am.  James had to stop off at Troy Andersen's on our way to the surgery center.  The Andersen's are having plumbing problems.  They have no hot water in their kitchen.  Since James did no plumbing in the kitchen he doesn't think that it is something that he did.  He had Rick the Plumber follow us over and asked him a couple of questions.  James will be back tomorrow to see if he can fix the problem.  The Andersen's bought an older home and perhaps something was done on the last remodel to mess up the plumbing.
When James was being admitted at the surgery center in Phoenix we found out he is not actually scheduled today to have his nerves clipped.  They will give him several shots today to determine if the nerve clipping  will help him.  (We are a little embarrassed because we have family members prayers and concerns.)  Anyway after the check in proceedure we were only in the family waiting room for a few minutes when they called James's name.  He was back in ten minutes.  The doctor did six injections in his back.  He wants him to give his back a workout for the next three hours.  He says if James feels no pain that means they will be successful in getting rid of the pain when they clip his nerves.  The sad news is that the injections did not get rid of any pain, not even for a minute.  Now what do we do?  Very disappointing.
We went to Olive Garden on the way home to drown our sorrows.  Good food is such a comfort.  Went home and did another of our favorite things, took a nap. 
I called Trina to see if we could come over this evening and bring the move "Arthur and the Invisibles" for the kids.  She said yes, and would we like to come to dinner.  Of course.  Trina is always so thoughtful.  The dinner was so nice, pasta salad, chicken salad and flatbread and fruit and avocado.  Healthy too! 
There was also an after dinner show.  We all went outside.  Rowan dressed up with a jacket and sunglasses and danced on the trampoline while Addy played her guitar.  She played the piece "Ode to Joy."  Very nice.  I tried to take some pictures but it was too dark outside.  What an enjoyable evening!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

We left the house at 4:30 am.  James is getting ready for a concrete pour and has to be in Chandler around 8.  We stop for gas at the Conoco in Show Low and James realizes he doesn't have his wallet.  I pay for the gas and then we head back to Vernon.  He can't do his medical proceedure tomorrow without I.D.  He called and postponed his concrete for an hour later.   I could have slept an extra hour!!  We made it to Chandler in time for the pour and then James was worried that he forgot his meds.  Yikes!  I'm worried about alzheimers.  (Come to find out he didn't forget his meds.  Thank goodness!). 

Work at Zaki's.

 

When I walk in the door Josh asks for my phone.  For some reason he didn't go to school today.  The older boys have a late start and Dallin is downstairs in my old office recording some music. 

For some reason I am not motivated to do much today.  I get Hulu plus on my computer and watch some TV until James gets home then we go to Chili's to get something to eat.  I have my Chili's favorite, the Carribean salad with shrimp.  I have a coupon for a free dessert so I order the cheesecake with strawberry sauce.  James takes a couple of small bites and then guess who eats the rest.  Chili's cheesecake is delicious!

Back home to water the yard and plants.  This evening we watched part of The Voice with Stacy and Paul.

 Jammin' with the Gonzos.

  I make some phone calls about getting sisters to go with the youth to the temple on Saturday.  Thanks to Alicia Hunsaker and Diana Curtis for saying they would go.  The temple always wants three sisters and since I am the only one from the YW's going I was grateful for their willingness to serve.

Don't you think Holly dog would look good with a wig: