Tuesday, July 22, 2014

I know it's not inspirational,

but you have to admit it's funny!

 This picture could have been

taken in Vernon.

Sheri told me a sweet story about her co-worker Nancy VanVleet and how she was a answer to Sheri's prayer.  Nancy has Monday's off and so Sheri has to work until closing which is around 5 or 6.  On the other days of the week she gets off earlier in the afternoon to be with her kids.  She was worried and stressed about the kids, it being the first day of school and had prayed that she could find a way to be home earlier on Monday's.  Nancy came up to her at work and said she woke up in the middle of the night with the strong impression that she should have Friday as her day off instead of Monday so Sheri could go home early and be with her kids.  The Lord really does answer our prayers through other people.  I am so glad Nancy was in tune and listened and acted upon the prompting she received.  No wonder Sheri loves working with her.

It was overcast and breezy most of the day and rained this evening.  While I am enjoying the nice weather James poured 33 yards of concrete in the heat.  

Darrel took the second half of his licensing exam today.  Trina says he is stressing and we should pray for him.  He won't find out for a couple of days if he passed or not.

Stacy called and asked me to send out a group text to everyone that Joshua's baptism date is August 16th at 10am.  James responded to the group text with this text: "Good night sweetheart.  I just finished work for the day.  Have sweet dreams. (About being with me I hope.)  Kim wrote: "Awwwww....dad is so sweet.  Did you not realize this is a group text?  Sheri: "Umm did you know you texted this to all of us?  I hope I'm your sweetheart too! James's reply: "No I didn't know, but it's OK because everyone already knows I'm crazy about Mom!"

Brian finally talked Kim into going to a D-Backs game with him.

 Looks like they're having a great time.

Brian got to meet Dan Marjele.

That would have made my night!

Where was Kim?

How tall is Dan?  He makes Brian look so small and

Brian is over six feet tall.

 

Monday, July 21, 2014

Esther 4:14-16

Mordecai to Esther:

"For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,

Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

Sunrise over Sierra Mentosa

Max and Evan's first day of school at 

Hancock Elementary in Chandler.

 Ben's first day of high school 

at Hamilton High in Chandler.

James has been working all weekend trying to dry out the carpet downstairs with a fan and a heater.  He loaded up his equipement this morning and left for the valley.  He is starting another job tomorrow at Sun Lakes golf course.  It's always hard to see him go.

Darrel and his family are still here.  Darrel took Trina and the kids for a ride to the pit while I stayed home and watched Lola.  She slept the entire time while I watched The Next Food Network Star.  My favorite, Emma, went home in this challenge.  Now I'm not sure who I am going to cheer for.

Nice shades Darrel.

Ruby loves to ride in the front.

When I got up this morning I was determined I was going to finish the Princess puzzle for Addy.  After all, Sheri did it twice while she was here.  Proof that I accomplished my goal.

Trina, Addy, Rowan and Ruby all helped.

Addy, Rowan and I made a trip to the clubhouse with a notebook and pen so we got make a list for grandpa of things he needs to get to fix the clubhouse up.  Here is Addy's list:

 James's "Honey Do" list when he gets home.

Addy was sitting on the bed in my office upstairs and accidentally sat on a wasp and got stung.  Rowan was determined he was going to kill that wasp for stinging his sister.  He was so protective of her. 

 It's fun to see what good friends they are.

A rousing game of Chutes and Ladders.

Finally it was time to say goodbye.  As is my tradition, (if I remember), I had everyone stand out on the front porch for a goodbye picture.  

Love this family!

This evening I went into town and picked up my thyroid prescription.  I came home and watched Master Chef and part of a Hallmark movie called "For Better or Worse."  I kept falling asleep so I will have to finish the movie tomorrow.

 

Sunday, July 20, 2014

How true!

 Sabbath sunrise.

Today was an exciting day to be in the Vernon ward.  We got there just before the meeting started so we sat in the cultural hall with Darrel and his kids.  The chapel was packed.  The entire stake presidency is on the stand along with our bishopric, Bishop Hall, Brother Wilhelm, and Brother Applegate.  

Rusty Allen is the first speaker.  He will leaving for his mission this coming Wednesday along with Aaron Windsor and Brett VanWinkle.  Brett's farewell will be later today in the Paloma ward.  Rusty spoke on the plan of salvation and did a great job.

Rusty on the right, Brett VanWinkle on the left.

Rusty and his mom Tina at a BBQ at the park yesterday.

Bishop Hall spoke after Rusty and he said now young man was better prepared to serve a mission than Rusty.  

In my experience, Rusty is one of the nicest, kindest, young men I have ever met!

After the bihop's remarks President VanWinkle got up and released our bishoprice with a vote of thanks for the service they have given.  Because of Bishop Hall's new out of town job it has become necessary to release him.  He was a great bishop and was loved by the Vernon ward members.  Our new bishopric: Bishop - Wes Miller, 1st counselor - John Wilhelm, 2nd counselor - Gary Thompson.  Here is a picture of Bishop Miller, his wife Ann and their son Hyrum.  They also have two daughters, Andyn and Catherine.

 This was taken off Ann's Facebook page.

The other man in the picture is a family member.

Bishop Hall, Bishop Miller, and President Williams all spoke, and then the meeting was over.  Bishop Miller is a very dedicated servant of the Lord and will be, I believe, a wonderful bishop.  I went to school with his mother Debbie, and her sister Janice Nikolaus.  His grandpa Leland who is in his nineties was at the meeting.  I used to shop at his store, Nick's Department store in Show Low as a teenager.  Brings back fond memories.  I got to hug Janice and speak with her for a few minutes.  Janice was the last person to see my mother alive as she had gone to the doctor's in Snowflake where Janice worked.

 Sunday School started out with few in attendance.  Brother Wilhelm and others were at the setting apart of the new bishopric.  Brother Diewald took over the lesson on the Psalms and did a good job.

Ruth Wilhelm gave her first lesson in Young Women's on baptism and did a wonderful job.  The grandma's rule in Young Women's.  There are four of us in the presidency: Diana, myself, Ruth, and Analee.  We had two visitors, Hailey Miller and Addy, Analee's granddaughter.  Girls attending: Shelly, Jordyn, Kilee, and Alice.

Bishop Miller postponed BYC so I got to go home right after the block.  

Here are some of the things we did with Darrel's family this afternoon: James and I took the kids on a Razr ride to chase jack rabbits.  Addy asked us to stop because she got part of a tree down her pants.  We also went to Chocolate Lake or what's left of it.  

The kids put together some Lego pets I had: a turtle, a squirrel, and a kitty.  I read to them from one of my favorite children's books, Miss Suzy. 

Rowan found my Harry Potter journal from my trip to England and asked if he could have it so I tore out the pages I needed and gave it to him.

 Rowan writing in his new HP journal.

We hold Lola.

We also just enjoyed looking at Lola.

 I should have turned this picture around.  Oh well,

you can still see how cute she is.

Addy, James, Darrel and I played Five Crowns.  Darrel won, James came in second, I was third, and Addy was last, but she was a good sport about it.

Ruby enjoyed eating spaghetti.

 Spaghetti as a finger food.

Rowan is the best at the matching game.

I watched Enchanted and held Lola most of the time.

 We also had FHE.  We did the same lesson with did last week with Sheri's family and Joshua, "Don't Get Mixed Up" which I got from this month's New Era.  

It was a nice relaxing sabbath day.  There was no rain but it was overcast and cool.  Darrel and Trina enjoyed sitting on the front porch in the rocking chairs with the baby.

 

 

 

Saturday, July 19, 2014

And when he had said these words, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he said: Helam, I baptize thee, having authority from the Almighty God, as a testimony that ye have entered into a covenant to serve him until you are dead as to the mortal body; and may the Spirit of the Lord be poured out upon you; and may he grant unto you eternal life, through the redemption of Christ, whom he has prepared from the foundation of the world.

-Mosiah 18:13

 Today's sunrise

For breakfast I made a loaf of banana nut bread.  James loved it and told me that banana nut bread is his favorite sweet.  He may have enjoyed it too much because later he got quite a headache.

He left to go to town around 9am.  He went to get a new tire and wheel for his trailer, and a thermo-cuplar for the downstairs hot water heater.  On the way up here Thursday evening at one point the trailer James was pulling began to swerve and he had a difficult time getting it under control.  He didn't realize he had a flat tire and consequently he ruined the tire and the wheel.  

James also stopped at LaCasita and brought me home my favorite meal: green chili chicken enchilada and refried beans and their wonderful chips and salsa.  I just can't get enough!

Bad news.  James spent over an hour installing the new thermo-cuplar and the water heater still does not work.  Our only choice is to call a repairman who won't be able to come until next Friday when James returns.  Darrel & Trina are coming tonight and we will only have hot water in one shower.  

James is so frustrated with the water heater that he goes outside for some tractor therapy.  He makes a huge pile of branches and brush to burn.

I think this is a Bobcat, not a tractor.

 While I was outside taking this picture of James I noticed how beautiful the clouds in the sky were.

You would think with all of these clouds that we would have gotten some rain, but it wasn't meant to be.  As you can see it rained quite hard on Sierra Mentosa, but never got to us.

As we were reading on the porch in the early evening from our book Blackmoore, we heard a car drive up and thought it was Darrel and his family.  It was the missionaries, Elder Stott and Elder Knight.  They came to issue us a challenge.  They want us to look through our Facebook friends and find someone whose name we can give to them or use as a referral.  I told them I would do it and I think James will too.

Darrel and Trina and the kids arrived right after the elders left.  I got to hold Lola!

What a sweet baby!

 Addy and I started this puzzle.

We got the edge pieces put together.

Friday, July 18, 2014

I love this quote so I'm using it as my thought for the day.

It's always nice to have James home.  He went down this morning and tried to light the hot water heater but it wouldn't stay lit so I went upstairs to take a shower.  

James's main focus today was to get the bill ready for Hatch Hanger so we can collect some money.  It took most of the day.  He got it emailed late in the day which probably means we won't get paid until next week.  

James went downstairs this afternoon and tore out the drywall in the hot water heater room ceiling where the paint was bubbled up to try and find the leak but he didn't have any luck.  There is no leaking in our bathtub or shower.  Now he thinks maybe the water came in when it rained.  Why is it so difficult to solve this problem.  He also thinks the hot water heater is totally unrelated to the leak.  I don't know what to think.  We also found more water in the years supply room closet.  We had to pull up the carpet and put a fan and a heater to dry everything out.  Also James said he vacuumed a ton of water out of the pad.  There was also some water in the closet off the downstairs bathroom.  I cleaned out all the wet boxes and threw them outside.  Later James took them out to burn them along with some brush he was burning.

James made us steak and broccoli for lunch using the leftovers in our refrigerator.  We sat out on the porch and read from Blackmore and watched the clouds build up and the hummingbirds fight over the feeder.

Sheri called this afternoon.  The side fence of their backyard came down today.  The surveyors will pay to build her a new one.  Someone is building next to them and discovered the fence was actually on their property.  How sad.

This sounds much worse than our fire.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

"Inasmuch as the trend in society today is rapidly moving away from the values and principles the Lord has given us, we will almost certainly be called upon to defend that which we believe.  Will we have the courage to do so?"

-President Thomas S. Monson

James crew poured again around 1:30 this morning at
the Chandler Airport on the Hatch Hanger job.

Joshua and I took Stacy on a Razr ride today.  Joshua has on his new helmet.  We took the 61 up to Christmas Tree Trail and then headed back down the mountain on the 404.  They are already starting to clear out trees that burned close to the road.  One of the things Stacy wanted to see while she was here was an elk.  She told Joshua how whenever we came to the mountains her dad (grandpa) would always have the kids look for elk and deer and would offer them a prize if they found any.  Sadly an elk ran across the road in front of us about 50 yards away and she missed it.  She was so disappointed.  She also wanted to see some clouds and she wasn't disappointed!

 Sometimes the clouds seen so close you

almost think you could reach out and touch them.

After our ride Stacy came home and took a nap. 

While Stacy was sleeping Joshua and I took pictures of some of the things he enjoyed doing while he was here.  He played Hedbanz with the Trezise boys and then again with his mom.

Max, Evan and Joshua played a game where they took one of the balloons from Boom, Boom, Balloon and dropped it from upstairs and then they tried to run downstairs and catch it before it touched the ground.

This time Joshua isn't running, he's just watching the balloon fall.

 I guess Joshua isn't going to make it to meet the teacher which starts at 4.  He has the same teacher as last year so he will be fine.

Stacy and Joshua followed me into Show Low on their way home and we stopped at LaCasita for lunch.  I had my usual,  chicken enchilada with green sauce and refried beans.  

 Stacy and Paul are keeping Tara's car.  She has gotten married and

moved to London.  

I am glad Stacy got to come up.  She hasn't been here for 3 years.  I think she had a good time although she was here less than 24 hours.  I know I enjoyed having her here.

On my way back home a truck was going too fast on the dirt road and flipped a rock on my windshield and left a crack.  I am so sad.  Poor Lexy.

In other news the Crane's killed a rattlesnake in their garden today.  I guess we need to be more careful when we go outside, especially when the grand kids are here.

I watched the top 18 perform on So You Think You Can Dance.  I liked Jacque and Zack's hiphop and Emilio and Bridget's dance to "Happy" which was choreographed by Anya and Pasha.

James got home around 9:30.  He was pulling a tractor up so it was slow going.  We watched Rizzoli & Isles and decided we weren't going to tape it anymore because it's too liberal and a little bloody and violent.

Only one shower in our house works right now.