Monday, September 1, 2014

"What do I want my grandchildren to know?  I want them and you to know that I know the Savior lives and loves us.  He has paid the price for our sins, but we must kneel before our Father in heaven, in deep humility, confessing our sins, and plead with Him for forgiveness.  We must want to change our hearts and our desires and be humble enough to seek the help and forgiveness of those we may have hurt or forsaken."

-Sister Linda S. Reeves

James took Alex, Adam, and Seth out early this morning to look for coyotes.  Again they didn't see anything but they did come back hungry.  I made them french toast at Alex's request.  

James and I finished our book today, "As You Are", by Sarah Eden.

Trina and I visited the clubhouse with the kids this morning.  We were impressed that James had put up a log to anchor the tarp he put up for the roof.  How did he do it by himself?  Addy said he didn't, that she and Kayla had helped.  

A meeting of club members

Trina and Lola join the meeting.

A great place to think.

I was going to fix breakfast burros for the boys and James before they left for the valley.  James insisted that I take a nap with him and let the boys fix the burros themselves.  The boys did a good job and Adam fixed his special eggs and then James and the boys cleaned the kitchen.  They left for home around 4pm.

Fuzzy picture because I forgot to clean

my camera lens.  Also the sun was very bright.

Seth, Adam, and Alex.

Trina decided that she's staying until tomorrow because she doesn't want to fight the traffic going home today.  This afternoon Addy beat me in Five Crowns and she learned to drive the Razr.

 I watched Lola while the family went on their last ride together.

Addy told me that the cabin is her favorite place in the whole world!  You can imagine how good that made me feel!

Darrel had to leave for work around 2pm.  Trina got me converted to HGTV.  I am loving the show "Fixer Upper" and "Flip or Flop."

Addy, Rowan and I watched Master Chef.  While we were watching Trina opened the pantry door and saw a mouse.  She immediately texted Darrel and asked him to bring home a mouse trap.  

Miss Ruby put on Trina's glasses and pretended to read the Lambson family history book.

 I still don't realize that I have a smudge on my lens.

Sometimes I'm a little slow.

 

Sunday, August 31, 2014

"As we try our best to move forward along the covenant path, we become more complete and perfect in this life."

-Sister Linda K. Burton

 The falls at Buckelew Springs

James went to a 6am bishopric meeting with our ward bishopric.  We both attended ward council at 7am for some training by Bishop Miller and the Sunday School president, Jimmy Applegate.  

James went home to get the boys and I stayed at the church.  Church was packed fuller than I can ever remember seeing it before.  Darrel and Trina came and sat in the foyer and took the sacrament and then went home.  

I got a new visiting teaching assignment today.  Randa Covert is my partner and we are assigned to visit: Mary Swift, Joyce Malone, and Julie Wilhelm.  

Back at home James and I had lunch and then took a nap.  

Bryce and his kids went home today.  Of course we had to take some pictures before they left.

Bryce, Kreed, Kayla, and Kilee.

 After Bryce left I went with James to Pinedale to release a Brother

Charlie Thomas from the stake Sunday School Presidency.  I waited in the car while James went in.  Brother Thomas's place is

beautiful.  I tried to take a few pictures without getting out of the car.  They really don't do the place justice.

There still are some beautiful places in Pinedale.

Beautiful trees!

When we returned home Trina had dinner all ready.  She had made chicken honey-lime enchiladas at Addy's request.  They were delicious!  We also had a FHE with Darrel's family and Seth, Alex, and Adam.

 

 

Saturday, August 30, 2014

"Your feelings of kindness and forgiveness toward others come as your divine inheritance from Him as His child."

-President Henry B. Eyring

A work of art.

James and Addy watched Rowan and Ruby while Darrel, Trina, Lola, myself, Adam, Alex and Seth went to Walmart.  On the way home I stopped and got a couple of pizzas at Peter Piper.  

Bryce, Trina's brother, came up today with his kids.  I guess he's giving Lexy a chance to adjust to the new baby.  

James helped the kids put a tarp over the clubhouse.

President Addy and some of her club members.

Both Rowan and Ruby got club points today because they caught

horned toads.  Ruby also saw a small snake. 

The kids all had fun with their dad's taking rides to the swing, the pit, and chocolate lake.

 Kayla and Addy after their Razr ride.

  Rowan put together a Lego fire truck kit while Kreed and Ruby looked on.

 Ruby tried to help.

Rowan lending a hand.

I cut up a watermelon and James and I took it to the church where I gave it to Diana Curtis to take to the Mayfield's for the Young Women's activity.  The young women are doing chores, riding horses and having a BBQ.  I am staying home to help fix dinner and celebrate Addy's birthday.  

For dinner we had pork chops, grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and salad.  Ruby helped me peel potatoes.

 Ruby did not stop until she peeled the whole potato.

She started another when I told her we had enough.

She said: "Oh good, because my arm was getting tired."

After dinner we celebrated Addy's birthday with chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, cookie and cream and strawberry ice cream.

 

James took the older boys, Alex, Adam and Seth out hunting.  They came back empty handed.

 

 

 

Friday, August 29, 2014

James left for work quite early and asked me to take the papers down to Sheri to notarize for the sale of the house on Ithica Street to Kim & Brian.  I caught Sheri at home about five minutes before she left for work.  That was a little after 7am.  

Around 8am I left for the arthritis center for get my infusion, have blood drawn and to see Dr. Caldron's assistant, Tiffany.  I was going to meet Karen Schneider for lunch after my appointment but she called and said she couldn't make it.  As I was leaving the arthritis center, Karen was walking in.  It seems that Lance has been suffering with gout and he made an appointment with Dr. Caldron.  Even though we did not get to have lunch together at least we had a nice visit.  I thanked her for my birthday present.

 Thank you Karen!

I finally took the plunge and got my membership at Costco renewed today.  I also got the Costco credit card which has no annual fees and gives discounts on certain items. I even got a free membership which I am giving to Sheri.

  I bought a bag of ice and loaded up my ice chest with ham, pork chops, roast, BBQ beef, and chicken fetuccini.  I got James some Alpine bread and headed out of town.  I was making good time until about 30 miles before getting to Payson when traffic came to a complete standstill.  This was around 3pm.  The Scottsdale woman in the Mercedes ahead of me said there was a wreck up ahead and they hoped to have it cleared off the road by 4pm.  Traffic didn't start moving again until 4:30. My four hour trip turned into almost six hours!

Stopped in traffice for an hour and a half.

People were driving crazy, cutting in and out of traffic to make up for lost time.  When I got to Payson I had to stop at Wendy's just to take a time out and calm down a bit.  It was after 7 when I got home.

James, Seth, Adam and Alex had made it through Payson before the accident and they were on a Razr ride.  Darrel gets off work at 6 on Fridays so he was the only one at home.  I guess Trina got caught in the backed up traffic from the wreck and had to stop and wait for awhile with all the kids in the car.  She stopped at Wendy's in Payson too just to get the kids something to eat and let them stretch their legs.  She got to the cabin around 11pm. James and I were already in bed.  I had hid the Calico Critters around the cabin for the kids to find.  They were so excited about them!

 The Hedgehog's

Mrs. Bunny and her two sets of twins.

The Chihuahua's

 The Squirrel's

The Koala's

The Cow's

The Pig's

 

 

  

 

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Happy 10th Birthday to sweet Adalynn!

This girl is kind, thoughtful, beautiful, helpful,

and obedient, and so much more.

I love her so much!

When I called to wish her a Happy Birthday she said she was so

excited to be coming to the cabin for her birthday.  I am excited to have her come,  along with the rest of her family.

I went into town this morning to get the oil changed in my car before leaving for the valley.  Both Center Tire and Walmart were busy so I called James to see if he could meet me at Sear in Chandler if I came this afternoon.  He said he could so I went home to get ready to leave for the valley.  By the time I took a nap, cleaned and packed it was 2pm before I left.   It was after 5pm when we dropped my car off at Sears.  James met me there in his truck and we drove to Tempe Toyota to get him a rental car.  We then both drove to Erik's house where James dropped his truck off for Erik to work on it.  James had to drop some checks off at the Chandler airport for guys to pick up in the morning and then we stopped at Sam's Club to get my birthday present, a new camera.

  

 Happy Birthday to me!

After leaving Sam's Club we hurried back over to Sears to pick up my car before they closed at 7 and then it was on to Olive Garden for dinner.  

Garlic chicken with mashed potatoes and fresh spinach.

Yum!

Addy has a new cousin to share a birthday with.  Ivy Clare Case was born to Bryce and Alexis today.  Bryce is Trina's brother.

Congratulations!

 Lola has a new playmate!

Can you imagine the fun these two will have in the years to come.

I loved this post by Trina about Addy!

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!