Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Happy 7th Birthday Evan!

Yesterday at Evan's party in front of Air Works.

Today is also President Uchtdorf's birthday and Jerry Barney's.

James and I dropped Lexy off at Sears today to have the oil changed.  They also called us while we were having breakfast at Mimi's and said it needed an alignment so we said to go ahead and do it.  

I have a California BLT Avocado omlet and James and I shared a pumpkin muffin at Mimi's.  He had something boring like ham and eggs.  

Back at home I wanted to help Stacy clean house because around noon James is bringing Dave Wilson over to look at the house.  Well the house is filled with drywall dust because James has Lauro sanding the walls in the living room.  I was a little frustrated and stressed.  Lauro did help vacuum and clean up the mess.

While James was showing the house Evan and I went to pick up Rowan in Mesa. James also had to load a piece of equipment onto a trailer to take to Show Low when we return from California on Saturday.

We finally leave for California around 1:30.  Evan and Rowan were full of questions: "How long before we are in California?"  "How long until we get to the hotel?"  They were hungry so we stopped in Blythe at PIzza Hut.  I am not gonna lie, it was a little scary.  

 You gotta love these faces!

One nice thing about this trip is that because of daylight savings time we gain an hour!

We arrived at the Embassy Suites South Anaheim around 8:30 California time.  We checked in to room 526.  The boys love it!!  

After the excitement wore off they finally crashed into bed.

I don't think Rowan is asleep yet.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013This

After our morning drive to McDonald's to get some oatmeal, I took a picture of Lexy.  Isn't she pretty!

Lexy 

James needed to take some paperwork to Aztec Wrought Iron and asked me to go with him.  When I said yes I was thinking that Aztec was right here in Chandler on Washington St. where they used to be.  Well since the new city hall was built, Aztec moved to Mesa.  This little trip took longer than expected!

I had a date with Karen Schneider at 10:30 to go to Essence Bakery in Tempe to get some macarons.  Essence is on University and Hardy right across from Tempe Camera.  Karen and I got in time to have breakfast before ordering our macarons.  We both had the big breakfast which consisted of mushrooms, potatoes, sausage, and eggs.  It was very delicious!  The macarons were so pretty I had to have several colors.

My favorite was the caramel.

I took them by to Sheri to taste at her work.  She liked the hazelnut and so did James.  Stacy tried them too but I'm not sure which one she liked best.

James was excited and so was I, to find out that he did get the job at Horne Auto in Show Low.  He will start next week.  Let's just hope that the weather holds up.

While I was taking my nap this afternoon John Usher came by to do an estimate on some yard work.  He is the one I hired last winter to do cleanup.  We walked around the yard together and I was embarrassed about how bad it looked.  He gave me a price and said he could do it next Monday.  I told him to go ahead.

This afternoon I helped Sheri with Evan's birthday party.  First stop was Air Works.

Evan and friends.

Ruby was there too!

 Ruby and Joshua.

The older boys came to Peter Piper for pizza.

The party ended up at Peter Piper with pizza and donuts!

Evan had to have a donut with pink frosting.

Opening presents.

Reading a card.

What kid takes the time to do this?

Cool!

I think you could say a fun time was had by all who came.  Kim was there and I went and got James so he could be there too.  I am so glad we were here for this!

Monday, November 4, 2013

Happy Birthday Jared!!

At the cabin last December.

Well, it's official.  Jared and Tricia are not coming for Thanksgiving.  We are going to the valley to have dinner with Darrel and Trina, and Sheri and Ian.  

I went shopping at Sam's Club for the Young Women's dinner we are having next week.  I bought New York strip steaks, steak sauce, Olive Garden salad dressing, bacon bits, croutons and steak knives.

James and I had lunch with Adam at Jersey Mike's today.  He just happen to come by as we were ready to leave.  We always enjoy Adam's company.  He is excited about going to Disneyland this week with Kim and Brian.  We are also going with Evan and Rowan.

This afternoon I went shopping at the local Dollar Store for cheap baskets to put rolls in for the YW dinner.  Afterwards I went to Walmart to get black spray paint so I could paint them black since our color scheme is going to be black and white.  

When I got back to the house I watched You Tube videos on the TV with Stacy and Michael.  They have something called chromecast which connects the internet to the TV.  

Lauro worked in the living room in Chandler getting the walls ready to paint.

It rained here and there was snow in Vernon.  Sorry I missed it.

Facebook finds:

 Drea Boles and Karin Gonda Westerman

at Karin's wedding reception in March.

Our Chandler friends the Ellsworth's.

Adrienne, Audrey, Dane, Marisa, Grady and Mike.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Almost up.

James bore his testimony in sacrament meeting this morning.  It was sweet!

  

I am a little disappointed in my visiting teaching efforts for October.  I talked to Rosie Lauritzen on the phone, caught Linda Diewald in the grocery store, and texted Lannie.  I can and will do better!

Today in Sunday School Brother Wilhelm shared with us that he started his fast yesterday afternoon by going to the temple.  What a great idea!  We are going to do that starting next month!

We have a new couple in our ward, James and Sharma Taylor.  I never thought I would be in the same ward as James Taylor.  We introduced ourselves to them today.  Sharma says she grew up in Snowflake but she wouldn't remember us because she is probably at least ten years younger than we are.

We broke our fast this afternoon by having goulash and stir-fry veggies, a rare combo.  

James left for the valley a little after 2 this afternoon in order to make it to Alex Braddock's Eagle Court of Honor.  I didn't leave until around 4.  I did the dishes and took a nap.  

I am so glad that James went to Alex's Court of Honor because Alex gave him the Mentor award.  He also got to visit with many of our Chandler friends while he was there.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

I love living in Vernon!

This morning at 9am we had our young women's breakfast to recognize those girls who had completed the challenge to read the Book of Mormon.  Those attending: Diana Curtis, our Young Women's president, Trenda Wilhelm, Shelly Applegate, LeeAnn Hunsaker, Kilee Hunsaker, James and myself.

Shelly, Diana Curtis, Trenda, LeeAnn, and Kilee

I love these young women and Diana too!

James made us some delicious sausage gravy and we had the gravy over biscuits.  We also had blueberry, banana nut, and almond poppyseed muffins, a nice fruit tray and some orange juice.  Everything was most delicious.

After breakfast we went around the table and had everyone talk about one of their favorite Book of Mormon characters and scriptures.  It was the spiritual part of our get together.  James participated too!

After breakfast I gave each one of the young women their gift bag and told them how proud I was of them.  LeeAnn and Kilee went home and Trenda, Shelly, Diana, and I played ping pong until all of the balls were gone.  (They went over the railing to downstairs.)  James took Shelly on a Razr ride and let her drive and then we took her home.  Diana gave Trenda a ride home.  It was a fun morning.

James cleaned most of the kitchen and I finished up.  I was so exhausted that I crashed on the couch while James went out to work on the CAT.  He still can't fix it so he will probably have to call someone.

This afternoon we started our fast that we would be able to sell our house in Chandler. 

This evening we watched "The Thanksgiving House."

Friday, November 1, 2013

Morning skies:

Wait, are those cows in our yard??

James had another meeting at Horne Auto today.  This project he is bidding involves tearing out some concrete slabs in front of their entrance.  The snow gathers on this concrete in the winder and the concrete has begun to deteriorate.  The slabs will be torn out and then a heating system will be placed under the new concrete.  If the Horne's accept the bid for the heating system James will start the job on or around November 12th.

I did some shopping at Walmart today.  I got a gift bag for the four young women who finished reading the Book of Mormon.  In it I put a tube of fancy hand lotion and a huge KitKat bar.  I also wrote each girl a note telling her how proud we, her young women leaders, are for honoring her commitment to read the Book of Mormon.  

I called and ordererd two bean burros and two green chili burros from LaCasita and James picked them up.  Charlotte, our waitress, wanted to know where his "lady" was.  She is so funny!

Thursday, October 31, 2013

 Happy Halloween everyone!

The low this morning was 21 degrees, but at least there isn't any wind.

I love this quote by President Hunter.

I have discovered the Mormon Channel app for my phone thanks to my friend Karen Schneider.  Today I listened to an interview and song by Brooke White.  I also heard a story about a little boy names Ryan who is helping to raise money to build wells in Africa.  He started the project when he was 6 years old. Wow!

James had an appointment in town at 10 am today with someone concerning the Horne job.  I didn't go because I felt like I had too many things to do to get ready for our Young Women's Book of Mormon breakfast on Saturday.  Also I set a goal at the beginning of October to index 200 names and as of this morning I still had 67 to go.  I did finish!  I worked on a Maine cemetery project which was fun because the names were type writeen and therefore very legible!

James and I continue to read the Book of Mormon, a conference talk everyday, and we are re-reading Victoria Holt's "The Mistress of Mellyn."  When I was a teenager my grandma Strickland, Nannie, let me read her copy of The Mistress of Mellyn.  She is the one that got me started on Victoria Holt's books.  What do I like about them?  There is always a mystery to solve, some romance, which isn't too racy, and usually an old English manor to explore.  The Mistress of Mellyn contains all of these elements!

Max is learning how to cook.  This week he helped his mom make baked ziti for dinner.

Master Chef Jr. here he comes!

Guess who learned to ride a two wheel bike?

It's Miss Ruby!!

Since it's Halloween I wanted to post some Halloween pictures.

James and I took the left over candy from last night's Mutual 

activity to the Vernon Park where the Vernon School

was having a carnival.  While there we saw this monster:

Colter Hunsaker

Some more Halloween characters:

Michael the Fat Man, can dance!

 Halloween in El Paso.

Trick or Treaters,

Joshua, Evan, and Max.

Joe and friends, Carter and Cash.

 Max and Addy at the ward Trunk or Treat.
Max is a businessman and Addy is an angel. (She really is!!)