Wednesday, August 27, 2014

"The importance of having a sense of the sacred is simply this: If one does not appreciate holy things he will lose them.

Absent a feeling of reverence he will grow increasingly

casual in attitude and lax in conduct.  He will drift from the

moorings that his covenants with God could provide.  

His feeling of accountability with God will diminish and 

then be forgotten.  He will care only about his own comfort

and satisfying his own appetites and desires.  He will come to

disengage himself from sacred things, even God."

- Elder D. Todd Christofferson

 I love sunflowers.  James considers them weeds.

James has two early morning pours.  One was at Rio Verde where it rained.  Two guys got into an argument and James had to settle it.  This job he has can be very stressful.

I fixed Darrel some breakfast this morning before he left for work.  He works from 8am to 10pm so he had to leave around 7.  He is going to be the head pharmacist and will make an extra $10 an hour over what he normally makes.  I hope he has the stamina for these 14 hour days.

I thought my visiting teachers were coming today at 10.  I waited for them until 11when I made a trip to the Stanford store for a Pepsi and a burger.  Their little in house deli is quite good.  I really enjoyed my burger.  

 View from the top of Green's Peak

This afternoon I paid bills, baked cookies for Young Women's, changed sheets and finished cleaning upstairs and downstairs.  

For Mutual tonight we helped the girls work on Personal Progress and had interviews.  I worked with Kilee Hunsaker.  Kelly Reynolds passed off three value experiences.  Hope helped her and LeeAnn played games on Hope's Ipad.  LeeAnn is way ahead of the other girls so I didn't mind too much.  

On the way home Kilee and I went by to visit Maddie.  Her mom said she had a migraine.  We left her the information for this Saturday's activity at Brother Mayfield's where the girls are doing chores and then riding horses.  We also left her some cookies.  I had a nice visit with Kilee.

When I got home I made some taco soup out of things I had in the pantry.  It was delicious and I left it out for Darrel to have when he got home.

 Good advice!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

One of my very favorite sunrise pictures.

"Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he

will not depart from it."

- Proverbs 22:6

Wayne Todd & Kim Mayfield

Justin & Randa Covert

It rained today.  Someone said that it rains more on Tuesdays than any other day.  That has been true the past couple of weeks.

I spent much of the day washing sheets and cleaning upstairs.  Darrel will be staying here tonight and then this weekend Trina and the kids will be here along with Bryce and his kids, and James, Alex, Adam and Seth.  

Rosie Lauritzen and I went visiting teaching this afternoon.  We visited with Linda Diewald and Joyce Malone.  All of the messages this year are on the divine mission of Jesus Christ.  This one focused on the merits and mercy of the Messiah.  As we were leaving Linda she told us that the new Relief Society presidency is reassigning everyone new visiting teaching partners and sisters to visit.  This makes me a little sad because I really like my partner and the sisters we visit.  This was our first visit to Joyce Malone who was just baptized in June.  We had a nice visit with her and her husband Mike who is not a member.  She is about my age and is very into family history.  It was raining when we left their house.

I found out that Rosie does not have a calling.  I told her we could use her in Young Women's but she seemed a little hesitant.  I told her that we have a great group of young women.  We will see what happens.

Darrel called this evening and said the electricity was out at CVS and could he bring some drugs home to store in my frig.  Just as I was going to make room in the frig he called back and said never mind that the lights had come back on.  He started work at 3 today and will be working until 10pm.  I will probably be in bed when he gets here.  

 I love this time of year when everything is

so green!

Monday, August 25, 2014

"The fear of the Lord is

the beginning of wisdom."

-Proverbs

Gilbert temple

James left for the valley before 4am.  I always feel sad when he leaves. 

Today was the first day of school in El Paso, Texas.  Molly started kindergarten, Emmy the fourth grade, Anna 7th, and James 8th.  I really like James's haircut.

 To put a little damper on the first day of school, they had a flood in their house last night due to a broken pipe.  Nothing like waking up to a house full of water, but it will take more than a little water to get this group down.  They are awesome!

While James is slaving away in the heat for President Greg Hatch, the Hatch's are on vacation in the Carribean:

Stacy had her home teacher, Chris Butler, come over while Paul was at work to give her a blessing.  Janny, his wife, came with him.  Stacy said it was the most amazing blessing she has ever received.  Chris told her that her children will learn to love the gospel as they see the joy that it brings to her.  She said he mentioned things that no one knew but she needed to hear.  Some people are blessed with gifts of the Spirit and able to share those gifts with others. 

 Trenda Wilhelm in her scrubs.

Trenda is 16 but is taking college courses and will graduate this year.

Since today is Monday I wanted to share one of my favorite cat pictures:

Last, but certainly not least, here are some pictures of Lola taken by a friend of Trina's:

Don't you just love that face.

 Is that a yawn?

So adorable!

 

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Morning sky

For what doth it profit a man if a gift is

bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift?

-D&C 88:33

 Mesa temple

James left early for meetings this morning.  When he got home I asked him how his talk went.  He said he didn't end up giving it.  He said the bishop had scheduled two other speakers and they took up all the time.  The bishop ended up asking him to give the closing prayer instead.  He was a little frustrated because he spent all day yesterday preparing.  I told him he would be blessed for being obedient.

In our ward Jordyn Applegate gave a talk on Personal Progress and did an excellent job.  Kip & Alicia Hunsaker spoke on the importance of family.  During Sunday School we discussed king Hezekiah and "Hezekiah's tunnel".  Ruth Wilhelm gave the lesson in Young Women's on dating.  It was good!  After the block Rosie Lauritzen and I visited Lannie Gillespie as her visiting teachers.

James came home before I got there and had to break into the house.  I thought I would be home first so I locked all the doors.  I also forgot that since he doesn't have his truck he didn't have his keys.  He climbed up on the roof and came down onto the balcony outside his office and got in. I am just so grateful he didn't fall or hurt himself.  He had to do some training with our ward's elder's quorum presidency and he needed some materials he had left at home.  

We had some sad news in our ward today.  Paula Johnson's grandson who has been living in Boise, Idaho with his mother committed suicide.  He was only 17 years old.  The family is trying to raise money for his funeral so they can bring him back home to Show Low for his services and burial.  Paula is a sweet sister who does alot of community service and although we don't know her really well we want to help.

I got this picture of Talon, Johnny, and Ruthie Wilhelm off Facebook.

James is their home teacher.

Talon was gone all summer and I

think Johnny and Ruthie missed him.

 

Saturday, August 23, 2014

"Christ's Atonement overcomes the effects of the

Fall, but it doesn't help us overcome bad habits unless we 

receive and apply it over time.  

The justified must still be sanctified."

-Brad Wilcox

James's project for this weekend was to write a talk.  He is scheduled to speak in the Sierra Pines ward on Sunday.

At 10am I went down to help at the RS clothing exchange.  Things were kind of slow so Wendy DeWitt sent me home.  

James had promised he would take me to LaCasita for my birthday, so away we went.  When we got to LaCasita we found it closed with a note on the door saying they were closed because of family matters and they would re-open on Tuesday, August 26th.  I must say I was disappointed.  We had lunch at El Rancho which was not as good as LaCasita but not bad either.  I got a call from Sheri as we were leaving El Rancho and we talked all the way to Walmart.  While I was shopping I was still talking to her until I got to the water.  I told her I had to go because I needed two hands to lift the water.  I love talking to my girls!  James went to Home Depot while I was in Walmart.  

On the way back to Vernon I read to James from the book "As You Are."  He loves for me to read to him.  

When we got home I spent an hour or so typing James's talk and then I fixed dinner while he was studying.  For dinner we had chicken, bacon, ranch panini's.  They were again delicious!

I watched Cedar Cove while James practiced his talk, then we went to bed because we have to get up early.

Sheri sent me these pictures of Lola today just to make me jealous and it worked!

 At the Lego Store

 My favorite!

 I couldn't resist posting this one!

Friday, August 22, 2014

"The Atonement was designed to do more than restore us to the 'starting line' - more than just wipe the slate clean.  It's crowning purpose is to endow us with power so that we might overcome each of our weaknesses and acquire the divine traits that would

make us like God."

-Tad R. Callister

("How Can I Lead a More Saintly Life" p. 89)

Earlier in the week James pulled the ligament in his left shoulder.  Today while pouring concrete he hurt the elbow on his right arm.  Hopefully he will be able to drive home.  I am glad he's driving a rental car instead of his truck.  Erik is still working on it.

I love to listen to BYU Devotionals while I am working on the computer.  They are very inspirational and uplifting.

Annie Critchfield got married in Utah today.  Annie was my visiting teacher when I lived in Chandler.  I am so happy for her.

Annie and Cole

Arizona Hill, one of our young women, is getting ready to go archery hunting.

 

 Today is Analee Hunsaker's birthday.  This is the gift I gave to her and to the other member's of our Young Women's Presidency.

'Lead Kindly Light'

This evening I went to the church to help the Relief Society setup for the clothing exchange they are having tomorrow. There was an explosion of clothes in the cultural hall.

 

Somehow we were able to bring

order to what at first was very chaotic.

 

 

 

Thursday, August 21, 2014

I was sad that James wasn't able to come home today.  When he wasn't quite so busy he used to come home on Thursday.

Here are some of the things I did today:

*I ordered all five seasons of Sue Thomas F.B.Eye on DVD from Amazon.  I used my Amazon credit card points.

*I watched videos on the hasteningthework.org website.

*I took a nap.

*I talked to Stacy about her health problems. 

*I talked to my cousin Rita about growing old.  She said her son Rick, who is friends with Jared, moved to Queen Creek.  He had been living in McKinney, Texas when Jared met him.

*I got a call from Darrel.  He is going to be working in Show Low for a few weeks, starting next week and wanted to make sure he could stay with me.  Of course!

*Kathy Crane brought me some fresh vegetables from her garden.

*I had made visiting teaching appointments with three people this afternoon but all of them cancelled except Rosa Westbrook.  I had a nice visit with her and then I drove into town to get a Sonic cheeseburger.  It rained on me on the way to town.

*Came home and watched a Hallmark movie, "Second Honeymoon", before going to bed.

Elk just passing through