Saturday, March 26, 2016

Happy Easter from Lambie

Every time I looked over at James filling the Easter eggs, he was eating candy.  I guess he had to make sure it was okay for the kids.  We also put quite a bit of money in the eggs.  The "golden egg" had $10 in it.  

There was also 3 - $5 eggs.  That's the way we get the older kids involved.  

Jared and the girls got up early this morning and went to the Gilbert temple to do baptisms.  On the way home Jared stopped at Filiberto's and got a burro.  He got hot sauce all over his white shirt.  Cathi volunteered to wash it for him.  She was going to iron it too but I told her that was not necessary.

We took the food down to Sheri's a little before eleven.  We kept the ham in the roaster so it would stay warm.  Before eating, we had the Easter egg hunt.

Lola got a head start.  Ben trying to figure out where the $10 egg is.

Is that the Easter bunny, (grandpa), looking for eggs?

 Jared, Ruby, Max, Alex, and Adam.

 Alex ended up finding the $10 egg.  It was partially buried

in the rocks in the corner of the yard.

Joshua on the run, and Ian blowing off the patio.

Rowan found a $5 egg and so did Evan.  We never did find the third one.  Maybe the Trezise's will find it in the coming weeks.

Our meal consisted of the following: Ham, Easter beans, scalloped potatoes, cranberry celebration, Sheri's rolls, a delicious chicken salad that Trina made, and several delicious desserts that Kim made.  She made sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, Martha Stewart bars, and Rice Krispy treats.  Everything was delicious!

Jared's friend, Cami Burgi came by to say hello.  We actually invited her.  She was late because she was playing "nurse" to a friend.

This group was talking about politics.

This group was talking about Trina's new house and how she wishes she had a pool.  Cami says pools are nice and she says she went to "pool school" to learn how to clean hers.

Addy was a part of this group.  She is using the money she got from the egg hunt to donate to cancer patients.  What a great girl she is.

We missed Darrel today.  He had to work.  Trina took him a plate of food.  He loves my Easter beans.

Doesn't Trina look beautiful!

Is James listening to the conversation, or 

staring at the candy?

The only thing that would have made our Easter gathering more enjoyable was if Jared's kids could have been here.  I sure do miss them.

 

As I was taking my nap this afternoon I realized that I forgot to put the cheese in my scalloped potatoes.  James said he thought they tasted different.  Oh well, someone liked them because they all disappeared.

 

This afternoon I went home for a nap with James and then around 5:30 Sheri and I headed to Kim's to watch the women's session of the 186th General Conference of the Church.

My favorite speakers were Sister Marriott and President Eyring.

It was great to see President Monson on the stand!

 

 Sister Marriott also spoke at the United Nations this week.

Trina was going to stay home and watch the conference with Addy.  Stacy said she was going to go to a movie when we invited her to come to Kim's with us.

We were encouraged to support the refugees in our area and to contribute to a new organization sponsored by the Relief Society, "I was a stranger and ye took me in."

Friday, March 25, 2016

James and I went to the Gilbert temple today, just not together.

I went to the 8:30 session with Kim and he went to the 10:30 session by himself.  He wasn't sure if he was going to go because of his voice, but when he got home from work he made the decision.  I am proud of him!

 After our session Kim and I rode the elevator with President D. Lynn Jones and Jessica Lamb and her new husband.  Jessica is Wayne and Chea's daughter.  When we got outside there was a big crowd of people.  We saw Wendy Arnett, Cliff and Cathy Arnett's daughter.  I wanted to see Cathy, but Wendy couldn't find her, so we left.  

Jessica Lamb is now Jessica Brown

 When I got home I waited for James and we went to Olive Garden again for lunch because we still had some money left on our gift card.  This time I had Minestrone soup, salad and breadsticks.  It was all delicious.  

This afternoon Sheri and Kim, and Sheri's boys and Joshua colored eggs at Sheri's.  Joshua was so sweet.  He asked me what was my favorite color, and then he made me a purple egg.  Sorry I didn't get a picture of it.  Here are the few pictures I took.

Kim and Evan

 Evan looks a little sad waiting for his egg

Ben enters the scene

Joshua coloring my egg.

Gee, I wonder what Sheri is doing over there.

Cute picture of Stacy.  Sheri on her phone.

Kim making a suggestion to Evan.

Joshua and Evan "horsing around."

Joe brought his guitar for our entertainment.

Alex and a friend hiked Squaw Peak today.

After we had finished coloring eggs, we heard a knock on Sheri's door.  When Sheri opened it, I thought it was Tricia and so did Kim.  It was Anna and Amanda.  Anna's hair is dark and she had on sunglasses.  She looks older than her 14 years.  They came in and visited with us for awhile.  It was fun to see them.  James was outside playing football with Ben and his friends.  He came in and gave me a big hug.  

As I was walking back to Cathi's I passed Jared going down to get Anna and Amanda.  He is taking them and James to a Fallout Boys concert at the Talking Stick Arena in downtown Phoenix.  It's where the Suns play and use to be called America West Arena.  

They left El Paso at 4:30 Arizona time with their youth group and did baptisms at the Mesa temple this morning.  The rest of the youth are going to the Easter Pageant this evening.  Jared and the girls will be staying here at Cathi and Terry's and James will spend the night at Sheri's.  Jared and the girls will go to the Gilbert temple in the morning to do baptisms and then Anna and James will spend Easter with Tricia and the Wallen's.  

I went shopping for the food for tomorrow's potluck at Sheri's.  I bought a $36 ham at Sam's Club and ended up taking it back because I decided it was too big.  The one I bought at Walmart cost me $21 and was plenty big.  I am making Easter beans, or Calico beans, depending on what you want to call them, and scalloped potatoes.  Sheri made a plea for me to make potato salad, but James had already ask me to make scalloped potatoes.  Besides, as Cathi says, scalloped potatoes go better with ham.  I agree.

Cathi and Terry went to dinner at the Keg this evening with the previous directors of the R.O.C. who are returning to their home in Salt Lake.  Their names are Marlow and Mary Ann Ashton.  Marlow is a friend of President Monson's.  He says that 20-30% of the missionaries who arrive at the MTC are sent home because they can't give up their cell phones.  What a tragedy.

James and I went to bed quite early because we have to get up early to fill the Easter eggs and do the cooking. 

I forgot to mention that when Cathi and Terry left for the center this morning, the doggies came to visit me.

 

Thursday, March 24, 2016

So grateful for the variety found in Heavenly

Father's creations.

James is working in Fountain Hills this morning.  I decided to go get some of my Easter shopping done, so I headed for Target.
I bought candy, plastic eggs, and a nice basket to put all of the candy in.  I also bought six Zootopia Tsum Tsum's.  

Here are the Tsum Tsum's I got:

Nick Wilde

Finnick

Judy Hopps

 Chief Bogo

Mr. Big

Assistant Mayor Bellwether

Here is what my candy basket looked like when I got it all filled:

I think Sheri or Ian posted this.

Whoever it was did not get a picture of the entire basket.

I came home from my Target trip to put the chocolate in the house and then headed for Deseret Book to buy the new Wendy Watson Nelson book.

I also bought this cute pink journal:

 A nice one to add to my collection of journals.

I also bought a new journal for General Conference:

 I like it because it has the Salt Lake temple on the front and

reminded me of when I use to go to Salt Lake every six months for

the General Women's Conference and Relief Society training.

My friend Karen wants me to do the 21-day challenge in Sister Nelson's book.  I am looking forward to seeing what that challenge is.

James was home from work when I returned to Cathi and Terry's.  We decided to go to lunch at Olive Garden and use our gift card that we got for Christmas from Sheri.  I had one of my favorite meals:

Chicken Scampi

I ate it again for dinner and still had some left for tomorrow.

Kim and I were going to go to the temple this afternoon but she called and ask if we could go tomorrow morning instead because she was so tired.  James and I were going to go but he had no voice and was nervous about going.  We took his truck to get the oil changed at Sears instead.

While James's truck was being serviced we hung out at the Chandler mall for awhile.  We went to our favorite store there, Barnes & Noble and I bought another journal.

 This one was half price and had a tree on it.

I am going to call it my "Tree of Life" journal.

This evening for dinner I had some of my leftovers from Olive Garden.  Sheri invited us down for steak if we hadn't eaten.  I told her dad hadn't.  I went down with him.

Thanks for the nice dinner Sheri!

  

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

The Arizona desert is beautiful right now,

but not quite as beautiful as the California desert.

 El Nino was good to these mountains

near Death Valley.

Well the primary results are in for Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah and I must say that I am disappointed in the Arizona voters.  Trump and Clinton took Arizona and Nevada, and Cruz and Sanders took Utah and Idaho.  This is what the delegate distribution looks like:

The only person I feel is qualified to run our country is Cruz, but I don't think he stands much of a chance to beat Trump.

Hailey Chaffin came by this morning to pick up the materials to teach my Primary class this Sunday.  I am her visiting teacher so I gave her the visiting teaching handouts for this month.  I appreciate Hailey and her willingness to teach my Primary class.  I know that she is someone that I can depend on.

I left this afternoon around 12:30 for the valley.  When I got into Show Low I stopped to get gas and to wash my car.  While I was pumping gas I realized that I had left my Sunday clothes at home.  I thought about it and decided I needed to go back to get them because I did not want to go shopping for clothes when I got to the valley.  When I returned home I was very tired so decided I would take a nap before leaving.  I called and told James so he wouldn't worry when I was so late.  I ended up leaving around 4:00.  I made two stops and arrived at Cathi and Terry's before 7:30.  

James was happy to see me and helped me unload the car.  

We went to bed quite early and so did Cathi and Terry as they have to get up early for their mission.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The day after James leaves 

30 elk show up in the yard.

It was an exciting morning for me 

even if there weren't any bulls.

 I think I only got shots of 23 of them.

Today is the Primary race in Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.  

James and I already voted for Ted Cruz on the early ballot. I will post the results tomorrow.

A terrible thing happened today in Brussels, Belgium.

When missionaries are hurt in a terrorists attack it hits very close to home.

My gospel study for today went something like this:

Jacob 5:19-34 - The Time of Christ (vv. 15-28)

'God saw that Israel (the old root tree) was saved and produced good fruit.  The scattered branches of Israel also

produced good fruit, except for the Nephites and Lamanites,

whose fruit was partly good and partly bad.' 

 General Conference:

"That They Do Always Remember Him" - Elder Claudio R.M. Costa

'I believe that starting a tradition of telling the

stories of Jesus to our children and families

is a very special way to keep the

Sabbath day holy in our homes.'

 "The Holy Ghost as Your Companion" - President Henry B. Eyring

'If we partake of the sacrament in faith, the Holy

Ghost will then be able to protect us

and those we love from the temptations

that come with increasing intensity and frequency.

The companionship of the Holy Ghost makes what is good more 

attractive and temptation less compelling.

Just as the Holy Ghost strengthens us against evil,

He also gives us the power to discern truth from falsehood.

The truth that matters most is verified only by revelation from God.

Our human reason and the use of our physical senses will not be enough.  We live in a time when even the wisest will be hard-pressed to distinguish truth from 

clever deception.'

I loved this talk by President Eyring.  It is one of my favorites from this conference.

 March 2016 Ensign

"Spiritual Rehabilitation" - Ron Simmons

'Recognizing the similarities between physical rehabilitation and

spiritual rehabilitation can change our perspective and give us patience to persist.  Just as each patient progresses little by little, with diligence, we too grow spiritually "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little."'

"Finding New Life in Christ" 

'Celebrate the Savior's victory over sin and death.'

Sharing this Year's Easter Video

A video with testimonies of people from around the world can be found at FollowHim.mormon.org.

Share your own testimony of the Savior using the 

social media hashtag

#Hallelujah.

The Blueprint of Christ's Church

 Chapter 22 - "What is our Ultimate Destiny?"

Chapter 23 - "What is the Purpose of Temples?"

Studying the gospel is a big part of my life.  I love to study.  It is a little harder for me to share my testimonies with others but it is something I know I must do.  Getting up in fast and testimony meeting to share my testimony is not that difficult, especially when I feel the Spirit telling me to do so.  Sharing my testimony with my Primary class and others who are members of the Church is not difficult.  It is sharing with others who are not members that is difficult for me.

I cleaned the family/living room floor today and was going to polish it but I didn't have enough polish.  I was going to go to the store but decided I would wait until I get to Chandler and I can polish the floor next week.

I finished paying bills today and watched "Chopped" while I was working.  Don't ask my why but I love this show.  I also watched "Pioneer Woman" and Trisha Yearwood's cooking show.

This evening I watched "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, from Paris with Love."

One of my favorite episodes.  Oliver finally closes the chapter with his wife Holly when she comes to visit and makes her feelings known.  He shows his love for Shane by installing a porch swing for her at 2 am.  They still haven't kissed though.