Monday, March 14, 2016

Happy Pi Day!

I got off to a slow start this morning because I wasn't feeling well.  I sat down to rest and ended up watching a movie called "Second Chances" about a wounded fireman and his landlord who fall in love.

James and I went to Show Low a little after noon.  Our first stop was Licano's where I had a tamale and a taco.  I want to eat well today because I am starting a diet tomorrow.  James wants to go to our class reunion in July and I have got to lose some weight if I am going to go.

After lunch James dropped me off at Walmart to do a little shopping.  I bought two 5-day boxes of Nutrisystem diet food.  I thought James might use one, but he turned his nose up at it and said he would "fend for himself."  I am grateful that he doesn't expect me to cook while I am dieting.

We also went to CVS to pick up a couple of prescriptions for James and then on to Sonic to get my large diet Coke with regular cherry flavoring.  I won't be getting one of these for awhile either.  

On the way home we read the first short story in our new book by Sarah Eden.

 The story we are reading is called

"A Friend Indeed."

Before going home we stopped at the Wilhelm's to take Johnny a birthday present.  He is four years old.  While James was getting his gift out of the back of the car, Johnny came over to my window to tell me his dad got him a handsaw for his birthday.  He seemed quite happy.  An interesting gift for a 4 year old.

This evening for FHE we listened to Elder Oaks's talk on the Atonement.  It was wonderful.  Afterwards we watched the movie "Smooch" which is a modern day take on the movie the Frog Prince.  We both really enjoyed it.

 I would like for my granddaughters to see this one.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Happy Birthday Terry!

 Terry with two of his favorite people,

Colin and Cathi.

Something happened in our sacrament meeting that I have never seen happen before.  Brother Wilhelm got up and announced that because people were leaving right after the sacrament, we were going to have the talks first today and then the sacrament.  He then said he was joking and the real reason the sacrament would be last was because there were no cups and someone had to go get some.

Hailey Hunsaker was the youth speaker.  She is the newest Beehive and you could barely see her above the podium.  She said she was going to talk about her favorite bible story, Abraham and Isaac.  She shared the story, read scriptures, related it to the Savior, and bore her testimony.  According to James it was the perfect talk.  She really did do a great job and her mother said she wrote it herself.

Pam Wood and Rick Lauritzen were the other speakers.  Pam spoke about friendship and Rick, at the bishop's request, spoke about doctrines, policies, and traditions.  Did you know that taking the sacrament with your right hand is only a tradition.

Kacey, Curtis and Zemira were in my Primary class today.  Our lesson was on Abinadi and King Noah.  The first thing I had them do after the opening prayer was guess how many coins were in this jar.

 The coins in the jar represent how many people left to flee into

the wilderness with Alma.  Do you know how many there are?

The person who guessed the closest got an extra piece of candy from the candy basket.

 This candy basket was much fuller before Primary.

Curtis guessed 350 and he was the closest.  The answer, of course, was 450.  More about Alma next week.

In sharing time today Sister Chaffin taught about King Noah and Adinadi.  I noticed that my kids knew most of the answers, except Zemira couldn't remember Abinadi's name.

Good News!  James was able to teach his Sunday School class this week.  I had called Ed Miller earlier in the week so he was prepared to step in any time if needed.  

After lunch and naps James went home teaching with Brother Lauritzen to the Scott's and the Hunsaker's.  I stayed home and watched a movie starring Alexis Bleddell, (Rory from Gilmore Girls), "Remember Sunday".  The movie was about a guy who was a genius and then he had an anuresym and lost his short-term memory every night when he slept.  It was a touching story in keeping with the Hallmark tradition.  

This evening I spent a couple of hours studying from the Book of Mormon Religion 121-22 manual in connection with my reading of the Book of Mormon.  James studied his Sunday School lesson.

Before going to bed we watched this week's episode of "When Calls the Heart."  

Last year on this day, I took my five oldest granddaughter's to see the new Cinderella movie.  We had a great time!

Ruby, Emmy, Molly, Anna, and Addy

 

Saturday, March 12, 2016

I finally got to watch Rowan and Evan play soccer
this season.

Although they didn't win, Rowan scored the two 
goals they did make.

 Ruby loves to photo bomb!

I am not crazy about this picture of me, but I 
couldn't pass posting this picture.

Some of the other perks of going to the soccer game.
Her eyes look so blue, and look at those lips!

 These two love snacks!

After cleaning our room and bathroom and washing sheets, etc. at Cathi's I left for the soccer game, following Sheri.  I am so glad I went.  James came too, but he came late and left right after the game was over.  I guess he was anxious to get home.  He made the mistake of going the Globe way and got in the traffic going to the Renaissance Festival so it took him a little longer than usual.

Of course I went through Payson and made one stop at the McDonald's.  I got home about ten minutes after James did.  It is good to be home and get things in order before Sunday.  We worked on our lessons for awhile and then watched a movie.  It was a little racy for a Hallmark movie and I was disappointed.  It was on the Hallmark Mystery movie channel.  It was made in 2003 and starred Kristen Bell as a teenager who spends the summer in Lake Havasu, Arizona with her dad whom she hasn't seen since she was 6.  It could have been good but their was sex, drinking and bad language.  Definitely not what I want from my Hallmark movies.

Jared posted this picture of James and Molly today.  I am always grateful to get pictures of my Texas grandkids!

 James really is a sweet boy!

Friday, March 11, 2016

I think it's great Sheri takes her boys for hikes!

While Sheri was taking her boys on a hike I was having my infusion at the arthritis center and then a birthday lunch with Karen Schneider at Firebirds.

 Karen looks good for being a little older than I am.

Back at home at Cathi's Indy and Lady are a little depressed with their mom and dad gone all day, five days a week.  Mostly they just lay around and sleep.  Indy came in for me to scratch his belly.

 Lady on her purple "burrito" bed.

 Indy giving me "the look."

Waiting for me to scratch his belly.

 

This evening we had a "girls night in" at Kim's house.  Trina couldn't make it because she had other plans.  We ate Oregano's and watched a Hallmark movie and mostly just talked and laughed.

This picture was taken last year

at Sheri's birthday lunch at

Liberty Market.

 Thanks Brian and Kim for letting us invade your space!

 

 Trenda W. took this picture of the sunset

in Vernon.

 

 

 

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Dollar Tree mirror for my visiting teaching handout.

James and I went this morning and picked up Lexy from Erik.  He still is not sure he doesn't need to replace the head gasket, but he said it passed all the tests and the check engine light went off.  If the check engine light comes back on, which it did, we will bring it in to have the head gasket replaced when we come back down for Easter. Update 3/18/16 The check engine light is off!

I went to five different Dollar Tree Stores this morning to look for the above mentioned mirror before I actually found three of them to use with a quote from the visiting teaching message to give to the sisters I visit.  I was so relieved and excited to finally find them!

After my shopping trip I went back to Cathi's and James and I went to lunch at Jersey Mike's.  We both had the chipotle cheesesteak sandwich.  Delicious!

Max, Alex, and Ben

This afternoon James and I went with Sheri, Alex, Ben, and Max to the Gilbert temple to do JD's baptism and confirmation.  JD is Ian's youngest brother.  Max was baptized for him, and Ben was confirmed.  James performed both ordinances.  It was all worth it to me as I sat across from Max during the confirmation.  Afterwards Max raised his head and there was a big smile on his face!
  Each boy actually did baptisms and confirmations for five individuals.  James and I saw and visited with an old high school friend Loren Hatch who was working in the temple.  I should have ask him if he was going to our 50th high school reunion this summer.

Ephraim Daniel Pope

Elida Pope had her baby today.  Boy #4 named Ephraim will join his brothers Ethan, Eli and Edmund, and his parents Erik and Elida. Congratulations! I was Elida's visiting teacher until they moved from our ward to Wagon Wheel. (Between Show Low and Lakeside).

This afternoon after dropping James's truck off at Cactus Radiator to have him put in a new muffler we went shopping at Deseret Book to get some new garments and to buy a book for Karen Schneider's birthday.  We also visited James's mom and sister Dawn.

James's truck waiting to be fixed.

James standing in front of a yellow rose bush in

his mom's back yard. 

On the way home to Cathi and Terry's we stopped at Elmer's to take home some dinner.  We called and ordered for Cathi and Terry too.  Cathi and I had the #7 plate with two beef enchiladas.  Terry and James both had machaca burros and tacos.  When we arrived home Wendy and Colton were visiting.  I felt bad that we hadn't brought them food, but soon found out that Wendy had been doing a Isogenix cleanse and wouldn't have eaten it anyway and Colton had already eaten.  Wendy told me all about Isogenix and her diet and even sent me the link so I could read about it.  She stayed and visited for quite awhile.  She shared with us when she experienced a tornado in Tennessee and then when she moved to Colorado and experienced another tornado there.  It was fun to visit with her and Cathi.  Colton seemed a little bored.

Michael had a track meet today at Brophy High School in Phoenix.

He did well in the 800.

Awesome!

This last picture is the wedding picture of Dave and Rosa Westbrook, two of our Vernon friends.  Dave is our home teacher and sometimes Rosa comes with him.  I was also Rosa's visiting teacher and loved to visit her.  This was posted on Facebook by their daughter Sadie.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

James brought this tree home one year for our Christmas tree.

No one liked it, so he planted it in the corner of our orchard.  This is what it looks like today.

James said he would take me to IHop for breakfast.  While I was getting ready to go he went out to try and pick the lock on the truck.  This is what I saw when I went outside.

We finally went to Home Depot and got something similar to a slim jim and he was able to get it unlocked.  In the meantime, we took Terry's truck to IHop.

I got my most favorite breakfast at IHop.  

Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, and a side of buttermilk pancakes.

Something funny happened while we were enjoying our breakfast.  I heard a song on the radio that I haven't heard in over 50 years and frankly a song that I never thought I would hear again because it wasn't even popular 50 years ago.  The song is, "Pineapple Princess" by Annette Funicello.  Annette was not a very good singer but because I liked her I owned all of her records.  I played Pineapple Princess over and over again in my bedroom but I don't ever remember hearing it on the radio even back in the 60's.

 This is the cover of the album that I had.

Talk about a step back in time.  This took me back to my bedroom in Show Low as a teenager when I would play records by the hour.

This afternoon I used Terry's truck again to go to Walmart to pick up my prescription.  We also took James's truck to Cactus Radiator to get his muffler fixed.  We went by Sam's Club on the way home and filled Terry's truck with gas.  It is so very kind of him to let us use it.

When we picked James's truck up from the muffler shop it was as loud as ever.  The guy only replaced the pipe and not the muffler.  I guess we will have to take it back in again tomorrow.  No wonder it only cost $100.  It will cost another $100 to replace the muffler but that is still cheaper than the $320 they quoted us in Show Low.

This evening we went to dinner at BJ's in Mesa with Darrel and his family.  Ruby got an Awesome Achiever award at school and she earned a free dinner.  She kept saying, "Dinner is on me."

Way to go Ruby!

We had to wait a few minutes outside for a table.  Lola was having fun visiting with the other people waiting for tables and playing peek-a-boo with the sign.

Peek-a-boo

Darrel had some important business to attend to on his phone. Rowan and Addy waiting for their food.  Trina was probably taking care of Lola.

It was a fun evening.  For dessert I ordered the three kids, Addy, Rowan, and Ruby a pazookie to share.

We went back to Darrel and Trina's and looked at some of the things Trina built with the two saws she got for Christmas.  She had a coffee table, and several nice wooden frames.  She is getting quite good!

Oh, by the way, Happy Birthday Patrick!

 

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

In honor of International Women's Day

James left for the valley around 9:30 this morning, which leaves me to winterize the place.  Since the temperatures aren't going to dip below freezing at least I don't have to drain all the pipes.  All I have to do is go to the well house and turn off the pump and water valve.

I was finally ready to go a little after 2 p.m.  I went out to the well house and flipped the pump switch to off.  When I went over to turn the water valve off there was a paper with a green, what I thought to be liquid, substance on it.  I tried to kick it away with my foot but it ended up sticking to the bottom of my shoe.  I had a terrible time trying to get it off and got this powerful stick goo all over my hands.  I guess James was using it to trap a rat.  No rats were harmed by this substance but a wife was terribly agitated.

I had to abandon my shoes and leave them at the back door.  I washed my hands about five times with hand soap and then rubbed them with hand sanitzer, but there was still a sticky residue.  For some reason, don't ask me why, I had some baby oil in our bathroom medicine cabinet. I rubbed it one my hands and the stickiness disappeared.  It worked as good as WD-40 and smelled alot better.  

I stopped in Show Low to wash my car and get a drink and a corndog at Sonic and then I was on my way.  James went the Salt River way and had to wait 35 minutes for blasting on the highway where they are working near Superior.  If he had read the sign leaving Show Low he would have gone the Payson way like I did.  

My trip was pretty uneventful.  I made my usual stop at the Circle K in Star Valley for a potty break and a Big Hunk.  

The desert looks beautiful right now.  There are little yellow flowers blooming everywhere. I should have stopped and taken a picture.

I drove into Cathi and Terry's driveway where James was waiting to carry in my things for me around 6:30.   We dropped off my load of castoffs at Goodwill and then went to the Golden Coin Chinese place for dinner.  We both ordered entrees when we should have shared one.  They were huge!  Oh well, now we will have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  

James forgot his phone so we went back to the house to get it and then we were going to take my car to Erik's.  In his frustration of looking for his phone he locked his keys in his truck, and still no phone.  The only think he could think of was that it must have fallen into one of the boxes we dropped off at Goodwill.  We went back and sure enough he and one of the attendants heard the phone ringing when James used my phone  to call his number.  It took them awhile to find it, but they finally did, in the garbage.  I would say we got lucky!

We had to borrow Terry's truck to drop my car off at Erik's.  He said we needed to drop it off tonight so the engine would be cool when he looked at it in the morning.

Back at Cathi and Terry's I asked them to explain what they do at the Records Operations Center where they are serving their mission.  They explained that there are five things they do and all of them are to prepare online information in newspapers and other information sources for online indexing.  Terry said there are 15 billion names to be indexed in the granite vaults in Utah.  It is exciting to see this work move forward in preparation for the Millenium.

Cathi and Terry are in charge of 65 other service missionaries called to work at the center. Here is their "crew".  Can you find Cathi & Terry? (Hint: They are in the back row).  Each missionary is holding up an activities tracker sheet on things they accomplished in preparing for a zone conference.

 They are so perfect for this job.  They both are patient and kind,  good with people, and have amazing computer skills.  I am so proud of them and so grateful for their example to James and me.

Bridget, relaxing in her basket on the counter.

We also got to see Patrick and his two little boys Hunter and Cameron.  Tomorrow Patrick will be 34 years old.  I remember the day he was brought home from the hospital.  Jonathan got out a pair of shoes for him and told his mom he wanted Patrick to go outside and play.

 Patrick and Heather with their children,

Cameron, Raelynn Rose, and Hunter.

This next picture is of a couple I have known all of my life.  Peggy Butler was our very best customer when I worked in my mom and dad's store, Double M Market.  Her two boys, Gary and Greg worked for us and were my mom's favorites.  It is hard for me to imagine that they are celebrating their 71st wedding anniversary!