Tuesday, June 10, 2014

"It would be wonderful to have a desire deep in our hearts to keep the commandments without anyone constantly reminding us and to have a firm conviction that if we follow the right path, we will have the blessings promised in the scriptures."

-Elder Zivic, "Let's Not Take the Wrong Way"

Serenity now

Today is the anniversary of Carly Elmer's drowning in our community pool in Chandler.  I believe it was 19 years ago.  Such a sad day.

James left early so I had the morning to myself.  I prayed, read my Book of Mormon, Conference talks, from the Old Testament and posted on my blog.  I am in Scottsdale and he went to Chandler to work.  He was back by 11:30 and brought me a sandwich from Jersey Mike's for lunch and a bag of Almond Hershey Kisses.  I am afraid that they are a binge food for me.  After eating I took a nap, watched Food Network and listened to the Old Testament on my phone.  First Chronicles is so far mainly a genealogy.  

James spent the afternoon trying to register for a hunt on the Arizona Game & Fish website for him and Alex.  He struggled for over two hours and was never successful.  Today was the last day to register.  Both he and Alex are quite disappointed.  Finally around 7:30 we headed out for dinner.  I had seen a Pei Wei when we were out and about last night.  We finally found it on the corner of 87th and Raintree.  We ordered lettuce wraps which we shared, I had a spicky chicken salad and James had the chopped chicken salad but decided he liked mine better.  I also had a diet cherry coke.  Every thing was delicious!!

Back to the condo to fall asleep watching Chopped.

Sad story

 

Monday, June 9, 2014

The Case family on their annual trip to the beach.

" To become a significant influence of righteousness in someone's life I must sincerely love them so they can devehualop confidence in

God's love." -Richard G. Scott

I spent over two hours on the phone with tech's from the Apple Support team who were not able to help me with my problem.  They also had me uninstall Adobe Reader, Malware bytes, and Norton which now need to be reinstalled.  They think it may be a Windows 7 operating system problem.  Windows is not recognizing the iphone device and won't allow it to install.  I found out later that I was charged $40 for their services. 

On a happier note, Sheri and Ian brought Ben, Max, and Max's friend Jack, Evan and Joshua over to swim.  Alex is still at the cabin with Michael and friends.  Ian took the kids to the pool while Sheri and I went to Target and to NYPD to get pizza.  Stacy was so worried about Joshua that we called Ian.  He said not to worry that Joshua could stand in the pool without the water being over his head. 

 James came home from work and had lunch with us.  He is discouraged because he doesn't have enough workers and now Steve Brown is going back to Wyoming.  Steve is Jessica Lambson's boyfriend.  He is also discouraged because his laringitis is worse and Dr. Moffat won't give him a steroid shot and James says that's the only thing that helps him.  

The boys had a fun time swimming and just "hanging out" in the condo.

Joshua and Evan in our whirlpool tub.

For dinner this evening James and I went to Rubio's for fish tacos.  Afterwards James worked on his talk and I fell asleep watching Cut Throat Kitchen on Foodnetwork.  

Sunday, June 8, 2014

"Am I securely tied to God so that my faith shows, or am I actually tied to something else?"

 The water went off during the night.  I noticed when I got up around 2 to go to the bathroom.  James went outside and pushed the reset button but when I got up again at 3:30 it was still off so he got up again.  The last time it worked!  Thank goodness!  What a disaster it would be with a houseful of people to not have any water.

Alex and Michael did not bring church clothes and I was quite upset because I had talked to Michael before he came and made it clear that I wanted them to go to sacrament meeting and then I would bring them home.  James had also spoke to Alex.  I let them know how I felt in a kind but firm way.  We improvised and they came to sacrament meeting with us and then James brought them home.  

The speakers in sacrament meeting were Jordyn Applegate, Judy Hunter, and Rick Lauritzen.  Jordyn spoke on morality and Judy and Rick on Christlike love.  It was a good meeting.  

James missed Sunday School.  We learned about Deborah, Gideon and Samson.  

In Young Women's Randa Covert gave the lesson on the differences between the Melchizedek and Aaronic priesthoods.  The girls took candy to the young men and thanked them for honoring their priesthood.  We got new class presidencies, Alice is the Beehive president and Heaven the secretary, Kilee is the Mia Maid class president and Maddie the secretary, and Trenda is the Laurel president with Jordyn as the secretary.  Alice, Heaven, and Jordyn were set apart today.  The others will have to be done later as they were not here today.  

After my meetings I came home and had lunch and took a nap before getting ready to go to our timeshare in the valley with James.  Actually he drove his truck and I took my car.  He went the Globe way and dropped some equipment off at the Chandler Airport.  We said goodbye to our guests and told them to continue to make themselves at home.  They will return to the valley tomorrow. 

Somebody posted this picture of Harold on Facebook and

I wanted to include it here.

I checked in to Desert Sheraton Oasis rooms 3058 and 3057 which are on the third floor.  Even with a luggage carrier I made three trips.  I locked myself out and had to walk to the lobby barefooted to get another key.  James arrived about an hour later.  The rooms have been redecorated and everything looks brand new.  The beds are comfortable and I love the pillows.

Not the Desert Sheraton Oasis, but

a castle somewhere in Europe.

 

 

Saturday, June 7, 2014

I just finished reading 2 Kings in the

Old Testament.  My favorite chapter

was chapter 19.  Here is the heading:

"Hezekiah seeks counsel from Isaiah to save Jerusalem-- Isaiah prophesies defeat of Assyrians and death of Sennacherib--Hezekiah prays for deliverance--Sennacherib sends a blasphemous letter--Isiah prophesies destruction of Assyrians, and that a remnant of Judah will flourish--An angel slays 185,000 Assyrians--Sennacherib slain by his sons."

James and I left with James Hayden a little after 7 to take him to Silver City where his dad his picking him up to take him home.  Before we left James unloaded the Razr for Michael.  He has been dying to take his friends on a ride.  

James Hayden sleeps most of the way to Silver City.  He is still exhausted.  I guess they did alot of hiking yesterday.  James is pretty miserable and keeps complaining about his arm hurting.  We met Jared and the girls at the Taco Bell in Silver City.  Why didn't I take some pictures?

On the way home James and I stopped at the Basha's in Eagar to get steaks and some other things for dinner.  Their steaks were buy one and get one free so I bought one for Alex and Michael too.  They were very tasty and we decided that's where we should always buy our steaks.  The Nicoll's cooked chicken and corn so we had a nice dinner.

Here are some things going on in the valley today:

Kayla and Addy had their dance recital.

Darrel said he was very proud of Addy and what a great job she did.

Adam got to meet his favorite actor Nathan Fillian,

at Comicon.

Joshua, Evan, Max, and Ian also went to Comicon.

Darth Mall and Max.

The boys had a blast!

Up close and personal with R2D2.

Thanks to Adam and Ian for taking the boys because they had a great time.

 

Friday, June 6, 2014

Love is something more than feelings of the heart; it is also a covenant we keep with soul and mind.

I took a walk this morning.  Thanks to my Tracktivity device I know I walked 3, 610 steps, 1.52 miles and burned 203 calories.  

Jeff Nicoll, the husband of Ann Nicoll, who are the chaperones of the kids staying here this weekend got up early this morning to go out and look for wolves.  I guess he met up with a forest ranger with a tracking device and they tracked one for awhile but never saw it.

Michael and his friend Alexis Nicoll went on a walk this morning too.

After my gospel study I made a trip to town to get my new phone.  I got an iphone 5s, white and silver with a purple case.  I also got a Wifi gadget that will work for up to 10 devices.  I saw Harold and Vickie there at the Verizon store and Vickie reminded me that she told me a long time ago to go Verizon for wifi.  

When I got home I was frustrated because I still can't download pictures from my new phone to the computer.  It must be a problem with the computer.  I am frustrated but I do love the new wifi device.  Now James can bring his computer home on the weekends.

Tomorrow I am going to try to uninstall itunes and then reinstall it.  

Here is a picture of our guests:

Conner, Michael, Alexis, Julia, Ann and

Jeff, Gabby, Jordan and McKenna.

Alex and one of the girls are not pictured. 

I am not sure which girl is missing.

It was after 10 pm when James and the boys finally arrived home from their fishing trip on the Black River.  I was getting a little worried.  Alex caught 64 fish, Grampa James 31, and James Hayden 21.  They are exhausted!  The sad thing is they didn't even bring one fish back with them. Here are some pictures:

James Hayden

 They didn't say they were big fish.  At the Black River
it's not the size, but the amount.

The hike out.

Rugged country.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

I got up an hour late and as a result I didn't got for my walk.  Although I wanted to get my new phone today I didn't want to leave James home alone and I new it wouldn't be very exciting to go with me.  He took the Razr out a couple of time.  We played Five Crowns.  I won.  We played ping pong and he won.  

James and Alex arrived around 1 pm.  I had emailed James asking him to bring us something to eat but he didn't read it.  He brought me a burro from Burger House but didn't bring James anything.  I was upset and told James Hayden he could have my burro.  Later I ate Alex's burro because he said he didn't want it.  I calmed down and made up with James before he left.  

The three of them, James, Alex, and James Hayden loaded up, including the Razr, and left for the Black River around 5pm.  

Michael and his friend didn't arrive until after 9:30pm.  There were five girls, Michael, and two parents, Ann and Jeff Nicolls.  I told Michael I could see now why he wanted to bring his cross country "team" up.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Today is Emmy's 9th Birthday.

Emmy loves:

To swim,

play volleyball, softball, and tetherball.

She loves math and

loves to read.

I hope she likes her longboard.

For as long as I can remember Emmy has been asking for an Ipad.  This year she got a Nook which is just about the same thing.  I can only imagine how excited she it!

Happy Birthday Emmy, 

I love you!

I left Vernon around 8:20 this morning and arrived in Silver City at 12:15 or 1:15 their time.  I have been communicating with Tricia via email on my tablet.  While Tricia and James were at Subway having lunch I went in to Albertson's and got some strawberries and a little bit of cash for Emmy to go with her longboard.  

On the way back to Vernon James kept me awake.  He explained the entire movie The Ender Games to me.  He just got his haircut and his voice has changed.  He sounds a little bit like Joe.  We got back to Vernon around 4pm.  The first thing James wanted to do was take a ride on the Razr to Chocolate Lake.  I told him he could but not to be gone too long.  I was going to take a quick nap before going to Mutual.  I invited James to go to Mutual with me but he decided to stay home.  He had french toast for dinner. 

Tonight is a camp prep night for the Young Women's.  Diana did alot of preparing.  She had notebooks, bags, water bottles and flashlights for the young women.  I got to visit with Analee and Winna Ulmer while helping prepare materials.  We sang Happy Birthday to Diana, Ruth and Julie Wilhelm.  Audrey made a cake and Randa brought some cupcakes. 

James was playing the piano when I returned home.  He plays quite well  

A picture of James taken before he got his hair cut.