6 W's

I spent my Presidents' Day

washing

windows

while

listening to

Wicked.

Now I'm tired and sore.

But the windows look wonderful!

Valentines

We got an interesting piece of mail the other day.  It was an envelope from Sadie, Zachary, and Emery.  They sent us some Valentines.  They were hand made - and we loved them! 

Thanks kids for the Valentines!

Window Wells

Last week I decided it was time to clean out our basement window wells. They looked like someone had decorated for Halloween using fake spider webs.  Only the webs weren't fake and I didn't think the missionaries liked seeing them through their windows.  So after exercising - down I went.  I was sure to wear a hat, work gloves, long sleeves, and long pants - to protect from any spider web or spider getting on me.  I took a garbage bag - to collect leaves, twigs, and trash in.  And most important, I took a broom - to get rid of the multitude of webs that had formed. 

It was gross work.  Did I mention spider webs?  There were many.  And along with the spider webs what do you think I found?  Spiders.  Luckily most of the spiders were daddy long legs.  I'm not too afraid of those.  There were a few small unidentifiable spiders - but mostly slow moving daddy long legs.  So in each of the 5 window wells I would sweep away the webs and smash the spiders.  Then I would collect any debris that had collected in the window well.  Last, I would spray around the windows and ladders with bug spray to slow the spiders' returns. 

What surprised me was that in 3 of the window wells I also found lizards.  A total of 5 of them.  Luckily they were dead.  If they were alive and moving around that would have creeped me out - totally.  So I also had to dispose of 5 lizard carcasses.  I can't imagaine why they couldn't/didn't just climb out of the window wells.  I guess they couldn't figure out how to do it.  Four of them weren't too hard to get rid of.  But the 5th one was a monster.  Really!  It's body was longer than my foot.  Here are the photos to prove it.

70 Seconds

Doug and I volunteered to work at the Arizona Best Fest in downtown Phoenix.  This is the official celebration for the Arizona Centennial.  We arrived at 7 am, signed in, put on our volunteer T-shirts, and helped with a lot of set up - tables and chairs, fence sections, etc.  As the actual event started we were stationed at the Volunteer Sign-Up location.  We signed people in, told them to get their t-shirts, told them where they were assigned, oriented them on the map and helped them figure out how to get to their assigned locations.  Wow!  We were pretty busy for a while.  Some time later they brought in food for the volunteers that Fry's had donated. There were about a dozen 6 foot long sub sandwiches, fried chicken, and lots of pop and waters.  We helped ourselves, of course. 

When things slowed down a little we decided to take a break and wander around through the events and see what we could see.  We went by lots of booths and picked up some little give aways - pens, pads of paper, key chains, magnets, etc.  We also stopped by Ken Bennet's booth - he is a politician and his daughter is in Scott's ward.  His booth had free red t-shirts.  The shirt had an this on the front:

 + D

On the Big Day - Bring it.

I guess it is to encourage us to not only get out and vote but to bring your ID with you so they allow you to vote.  Pretty cute - we got one of those plus a free red reusable bag.  Jackpot!  But when we went by the Marines booth we saw a nice dry-tech t-shirt you had to earn.  Doug suggested that I do a bent arm hang and try to earn a shirt.  I dismissed the thought at first but Doug was sure I could stay hanging up there for the required 70 seconds.  That didn't sound too bad - so I signed the consent forms and was soon staring about 8 feet up into the air at the bar.  When I signed up a Marine gave me some encouragement and a few tips.  One that proved helpful was that the time kept counting as long as my arms were bent.  Even if I was starting to come down - do it slowly, he said, they'll keep counting as long as your arms are not fully extended.  So with a boost from one of the Marines I stepped into his hands and was soon hanging from the bar.  A Marine with the watch insisted in counting out every 5 seconds.  That was annoying.  But I was focused and doing pretty good.  But at around 40 seconds or so I could feel the burn.  And with the burn my mind started to doubt.  But I kept hanging.  Pretty soon my arms were shaking too.  And at about 60 seconds my chin began to fall below the bar.  But it was a slow-motion falling down - having remembered the tip I was given earlier.  Those last 10 seconds lasted about 10 minutes.  But as my arms slowly left their bent position and moved closer and closer to a straight armed hang - I digged as deep as I could.  And guess what?  Yep.  I managed to delay the inevitable just long enough.  But as soon as he said 70 - I dropped.

I was happy.  I was successful.  I earned a shirt.  Now, why didn't Doug try to earn one too?  Don't know.  But you can be proud that your mom, sister, daughter, cousin, aunt, grandma, or friend wowed a few of those Marines - and it only took 70 seconds. 

So today was a 3 free t-shirt day -

for me!

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Arizona turns 100 years old on February 14th, 2012.  For some reason I am really excited about that.  Did you know that Arizona was the "baby" of the republic?  Yes, it was refered to as the "Baby State".  Do you know why?  It was the last of the contiguous 48 states to be admitted to the union.  It remained the baby state for 47 years.  That is when Alaska and Hawaii gained statehood. 

Tonight we are going downtown to a concert given by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (280 choir members)  and the Orchestra at Temple Square (65 orchsetra members).  This concert is an official Arizona Centennial activity.  Tonight's performance will include a mix of hymns, classical music and showtunes. They have only been to Arizona one other time - over 40 years ago.  So we are really feeling lucky that they are coming here. 

We bought several extra tickets.  Our block of tickets will be used by:  Doug and I, my mom, Sheri Swerdfeger and her date (she is a tennis friend of mine), and our tenants/and friends the Montenegro's.

We will go out for something to eat before the concert.  Then we will ride the light rail downtown - for free.  Then we will be entertained, inspired, and awed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

Here are a few interesting facts:

The choir is a 360 member all volunteer choir.  Why 360?  That is how many seats were in the choir rostrom. 

The members must travel to SLC several times a week for all practices and weekly performances.  They are not reimbursed for their participation, travel expenses, or performances.  

To be a choir member you must be at least 25 years old and no older than 60.  And you are limited to 20 years in the choir. 

The choir has been in existence for 164 years.

The orchestra is a 110 member all volunteer group.
 
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square tour every other year.

BYU-Hawaii

I brushed shoulders with the BYU- Hawaii tennis team today.  Turns out there is a big tournament at the Paseo Racquet Club this week.  They are here along with about a dozen other teams.  The tournament started today and runs through Saturday. 

So today while our Wednesday group was there playing we saw them playing their first mens doubles matches against Grand Canyon Univeristy.  Guess what?  BYU-Hawaii won all those matches.  Yes!!

And guess what? 

We're going clear over to see the BYU-Hawaii campus in a couple of months. 

So ALOHA!

Buckingham Palace

Did I ever tell you that I've been to Buckingham Palace in London?  Well I have.  My mom has too.  It was, shall I say, palacial?  Very large, lots of rooms, stairs, long halls, tons of windows, built to last a long time, and the decor - ppssshh out of this world.

But I'm here to tell you that there is a Buckingham Palace here.  Not more than 5 miles from our house.  It is huge.  It has lots of rooms. It has ramps and windows.  It even has turrets. and don't forget the ferris wheel.  Ladders - two of them. Two slide like features. There is also fur - lots!  It is amazing.  Truly amazing.  If any of you want to come see it sometime - I think I can arrange for a private showing just so you can be convinced about my very accurate description of said palace. 

How could this Buckingham Palace be such a secret?  A view heretofor seen by only 6 human eyes?  Well let me explain.  My friend - bought the palace.  She might be rich - I'm not sure.  But the palace came unassembled in a bazillion boxes and happily delivered by the UPS man.  She needed some help assembling it.  So yesterday Doug and I took our battery operated drill and helped with the assembly. 

First we unpacked boxes, laid like items together, opened and defined what hardware we had, and then - kids what do you think we did?  Yep, the silver rule - we read and followed the directions.  We started from the bottom up and slowly but surely the Buckingham Palace began to take shape.  We had tubes, towers, and turrets, ladders, slides, and ramps, 3 or 5 sizes of round houses with entry ports in them, ferris wheel, platforms and wings.  I mentioned fur?  The components were either covered with fur or coiled rope.  And with only 1 exception (faulty piece - not our fault) we got the entire palace constructed in 4 hours.  Whew!  (The guy at the place she bought the palace said their guys could get it assembled in 3 hours - so we didn't do too bad.)

So here you are -

a peek at the West Valley's very own

Buckingham Palace! 

See the Buckingham Palace in action.

Finished size? 

Nine feet tall.

Six feet wide.

Four feet deep.

Weight - a ton!

Her cats are sooooo lucky!

Small Mistake

It has been brought to my attention that I made a small mistake.

We do not sail on a capri sun. 

No, not at all. 

This is a capri sun. 

We sail on a Catalina Capri 14.2.

Like this - only not so colorful.

Hopefully you'll feel more comfortable now taking us up on our offer to go sailing.

Packages from Grandma

Packages from Grandma

are on the way for 3 special kids in Utah. 

 Hope you get them very soon.