Friday, May 22, 2015

Why do I have so many pictures of Addy you might ask.

Because she posts them on Instagram and I borrow them.

She is very happy that school is out.

The kids in Chandler still have school but today is a party day.

Max made this game for his class to play.  What kind of a ball did he have for this game.  A football, of course!

Addy and Max will both be in sixth grade next year.

 

James left for the cabin early this morning.  Adam and his friends are going up this weekend and we felt like someone should be there with them.  Of course the first thing Adam wanted to do when he got there was ride the Razr.  James says he feels like he has strep throat.  Oh dear it's probably from all that river water he swallowed last week.  I can pretty much plan on him being sick the next week after he goes to the Black River.

 

This morning I was going to go to the temple but I just wasn't feeling well so I took some Tramadol and went back to bed.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. 

 

This afternoon I cleaned out the canned food cupboard.  Much of the food had expired and I had to trash it. 

 

This evening I worked on constitution lesson number 5.  

 



 

 



Thursday, May 21, 2015

Somewhere in Virginia

 

Addy is very happy that today is the last day of school for her school in Gilbert.  Chandler isn't out until next Tuesday.

I love this girl!

She is both beautiful and kind!

 

James had to take two more cabinet doors out to Dan Taylor's.  They are the small ones located over the refrigerator and he/we forgot them on the last load.  He insisted I go so I could read to him.  Dan's new cabinet shop is located on Power south of Riggs, so it's a ways out there.  Very close to San Tan Mountain and where Karen Schneider lives.  We finished our book, "A Lady at Willowgrove Hall.""  It was one of my favorites because I actually learned some lessons about friendship and how to treat others and how to get over past mistakes.

 

 

James had the boys, his "crew", work in the kitchen today, so there wasn't much room for me to be there.



James's crew: Alex, Seth, and Dallin

We have so many messes right now it's hard to know where to start.  All of the kitchen shelves need to shelf paper and some need to be painted inside. 

 

Stacy went to the doctor today because her blood pressure has been extremely high: 163/132.  She has never had high blood pressure before.

 

Tonight for Mutual, the priests, which includes Michael and Alex, had a cookout at Bishop Lewis's.  Bishop made each boy a 4 lb burger with a large bun included.  Alex took a video of Michael trying to eat his, but of course he didn't finish.  I guess Brad Dawson ate half of his and then got sick and had to make a trip to the bathroom.  Such fun!

 

Michael also had a track awards program tonight where he received this award:



It says:

Distance Athlete Award

Michael Gonzales

 

Congratulations Michael!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Wednesday, May 20, 2015

This young man just got his mission call to serve in the

Chile Orsono mission. 

Congratulatins Alex!

 

I actually felt good today and accomplished some things.  I cleaned the bathroom and did some shopping.  I also went to Dan Taylor's to take the kitchen cabinet doors for him to refinish.  We also stopped by Home Depot to get some carpet samples.  I convinced James that we need to put new carpet in the living room.  I picked out some I really like and it's not too expensive.  The new counter tops and backsplash are ordered so we have a lot going on here.



These two cuties graduated from kindergarten today.

I didn't go because I didn't know about it.

After the graduation Ruby, Lola, and Ivy got their ears pierced.

Kreed is holding Ruby's hand.  When she cried, he cried too.

Lola's new look.

I was reminded of Lola today while I was out shopping.  These two guys somehow jumped in my purse when I babysat Lola and they have bee there ever since.

An nice edition to my key chain.

Chloe and Zack.

 



Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Anna gave her first talk in church on Sunday.  The topic was:

"Why I love the Book of Mormon."  I would have loved to have been there.  She looks so grown up and beautiful in this picture.

This picture of James was taken at the Father's and Son's Outing.

He looks a little like William Tell, don't ya think!

He's the apple of my eye!  Such a sweet boy.

 

Lola hanging out with one of her friends during church.

 

Today was not a good day for me.  These three photographs were the highlight of my day.  Thanks Jared and Trina for posting.

I was so miserable this morning I went back to bed after scriptures and prayer.  I had the chills and couldn't stop shaking.  When James asked me what I wanted for lunch, I said hot and sour soup, so he went and got me some.  I ate some and felt a little better, then he wanted me to do some errands with him, which I did.

 

After the errands with James I came home and still felt miserable so I took two of the pain meds, Tramadol, Dr. Calderon prescribed on May 4th.  Wow!  Talk about a trip!  Too much Tramadol.  It took away my pain but it made me extremely tired and took away all of my appetite.  Later, when I actually tried to get up, I got sick to my stomach and lost everything I had eaten, which wasn't much.

 

Which is worse the sickness or the cure?  Also, I took 8 methotrexate yesterday and I am wondering if that had anything to do with me feeling sick today.  The great adventure of life.

 



Monday, May 18, 2015

Our friends from Vernon, Collin and Wendy DeWitt are leaving for their mission to the Carribean this week.  They posted this picture of all their children and grandchildren on Facebook and said it would be the last time they would all be together for two years.

We will miss them in Vernon but know they are doing what the Lord would want them to do.  We will add them to our list of missionaries to pray for.

 

We got an entire page of coupons from Peter Piper Pizza for Lambson Construction and we decided to use one of them today, buy one lunch buffet and get the second one free.  It cost us around $8 for two lunches and a drink.  Not bad. They need to build a Peter Piper in Show Low!

This evening was Joe's last performance as part of the Chandler High School choir. 

 



Combined men's and women's choir

There is a Women's Choir, a women's group called the Treblemakers, a Men's Choir, the Advanced Women's Choir, Chamber Choir, and Chorale which includes men and women.

They are all so good but I think my favorite was the men's choir and the chamber choir.  Joe is in both.  You have to be chosen to be in the chamber choir, which is quite an honor.  It was a very relaxing and enjoyable evening.  We sat with Kim and Brian and Chelsea Pace and her two boys, Carter and Cash.

Joe

Joe with his fans, Carter and Cash

 



Sunday, May 17, 2015

One more picture from yesterday's trip to the Black River.

 

How true!

 

Zach and Julie Turvey spoke in sacrament meeting today.  They are probably in their late 20's and he has an awesome English accent.  They spoke about testimony and continuing revelation.  Both are returned missionaries and they both have deep and abiding testimonies based on the Book of Mormon.  Zach read the Book of Mormon 18 times while he was on his mission and each time when he was finished he would kneel down and pray to know if it was true.  He said he received a confirmation every time.  It is refreshing to see young people with such powerful testimonies of the gospel.  They are Ben's Sunday School teachers.  Lucky Ben.

 

We only had four children attend our Primary class today: Ryder, Brooklyn, Taylor and Callie.  Shade was there but he was in one of his "moods" and refused to come to class. 

This is Taylor she told us all about her pet owl.  When I asked her dad about it he said:  "You can't really believe everything she says."

She has quite an imagination.

After church we came home and had beans for lunch and then took a nap.  

Evan came down to play with Joshua but he had to read his scriptures first.  While Joshua was reading from the Book of Mormon, Evan read from The Friend.



 At 5:30 we attended the Chandler Stake seminary graduation.  We sat by Kim, Brian and Joe.  We are proud of Joe for filling all the requirements to graduate from seminary.  It was a very nice program and their were 44 youth that graduated, including E.J. Castillo.  Mitch Jones came down and spoke to us which made James feel really good.  They went to college together and were on the same wrestling team at MCC for a year. 

The highlight of the program was a musical number entitled" Until He Comes."  It was a duet and the girl, Moira Leon, had an absolutely beautiful voice.  Joe says she is in choir and he is friends with her. 

 

Afterwards we drove to the Galveston stake center and attended our stakes seminary graduation.  We had five youth graduate from our ward, which was nice, but we were really there for Seth.

Erik, Aaron, Seth, Kit, and Kit with his best buddy, Alex.

Our stake is quite a bit smaller than the Chandler stake.  We only had 22 graduates.  I am proud of Michael, Ben, and Joe and Alex.  They all read the D&C this year which was the assigned text for the year.

Addy posted this picture of Lola on Instagram and I thought it was so cute I had to post it here.



  Lola the ballerina











Saturday, May 16, 2015

Snow in the White Mountains and in other areas of the state.

This picture was taken by a friend of ours, Cope Reynolds.

James failed to take any pictures of the snow.

 

Joshua and Evan missed their soccer game today.  (It may have been too wet to play anyway)  They are going to a birthday party for their friend Bryce.  Evan asked me to wrap his gift since his mom had to work this morning.

Evan says it's exciting to get a wrapped present.

 

While James with at the Black River with the boys, I was at Addy and Kayla's tumbling recital. 

Addy, striking a pose.

Back flip, or a bridge

Oh yes, Ruby was there too.

There must have been 200 girls, and a few younger boys who participated in this recital.  The girls were all ages and abilities.  This is Addy and Kayla's first year and they did a great job!

 

Ruby is so proud that she lost a tooth.

Rowan sat next to me.  He did hand shadows on the ground to

entertain himself.  As you can see, Trina's mom got to sit by the babies. (Tristan was there with Rhia and of course Lola).

Rowan and I stole Lola for a picture at the end of the program.

 

 

Here are some pictures that James sent me from the Black River.  When I asked where Adam was he said he got cold and wet and walked back to the truck to read his book.  He did catch 5 fish.

Alex caught 86 fish.

 

 

Seth caught 80, and James caught 70. 

Seth says it's the most fun that he's ever had!

That makes the trip all worthwhile.

James Hayden helping with a service project at his ward's fathers and sons outing.  That's him in the red sweatshirt.  Jared says he wears it everywhere.

 

In other exciting news today two of the young men we know got their mission calls.  First, Weston Hall from Vernon received his call to serve in the Argentina Buenos Aires South mission and he reports September 23rd.  Weston's brother, Kendall is serving in Argentina and will be home in November.  Their dad, our former bishop, Ron Hall also served in Argentina.  Congratulations!

 

Here in Chandler Alex Braddock opened his mission call this evening.  He is going to the Chile Orsono mission and reports July 1st.  Congratulations Alex!