Conference

Wasn't conference great?!  One of my favorite parts was the quick peek the camera gave us of Elder Archuletta singing in the Missionary Choir right at the end of the closing song.

Shark

My grandson, Calvin, is so smart.  He told us all on a recent blog post that, "Shart . . bite . . you!"  He was right.  It always makes me a little nervous being in an ocean for that reason.  Sharks are big and scary.  But why should a little kid like Calvin know about sharks being scary?

So after he taught us about the dangers of sharks I had a thought pop into my mind.  I wanted to rescue Calvin from a long life of scary shark thoughts.  I remembered a soft, cuddly, furry, cute, small, friendly-looking shark around our house a long time ago.  Right away I headed downstairs to search through the deep dark recesses of the basement (that's a little scary too!).  I didn't have to look very far.  It wasn't too far back in the dark.  And voila, I found it. 

This stuffed shark has lived peacefully with us for many years.  And never once did I have to tell the kids that this  . . . . . Shark . . . bite . . . you. 

Well the next time we had a video call with our sweet little Calvin I was sure to have our nice shark on hand.  I made sure Calvin was looking at the monitor and I pulled out the shark.  He loved it and seemed glued to the screen.  (This was probably the first time I ever had his undivided attention during a video chat.)  It was a hit.  He kept asking to see the shark.  So guess what?  After determining the original owner of the nice shark was Evan - we decided that when we head up to Utah next time we are going to take the shark with us and give it to Calvin.  He deserves having a soft, cuddly, furry, cute, small, friendly-looking shark. 

Thunderbird Trail

I watched Billie for a few days while Mom was in Utah.  It went pretty good.  I decided on Friday to take Billie on a field trip.  We wanted to see the progress on the Phoenix Temple.  The Thunderbird Trail is very close to the new temple.  So we thought we'd also take a walk/hike on the trail for a little exercise and fresh air. 

We loaded in the car.  I took the leash, some water, and the camera.  Then we were off.  We got out of the car when we got to the temple and discovered that the viewing area is only opened at noon - it was only 9ish.  So that was suddenly off the list of things to do.  All we could see was this huge crane through the opened gate.
 

We drove the quarter mile or so to the parking lot for Thunderbird Trail.  We got out of the car and were off.  I had been there once before and thought I remembered it being pretty level and not too rocky.  I thought Billie could handle that.  And sure enough she did great.  There were a couple spots that had big step-ups.  But Billie was a trooper and did great.  She did so much sniffing that she was in smell heaven! 

And everyone, did I say everyone?  Everyone loved seeing Billie.  They did baby talk to her and said how cute she was.  She was a hit - for sure.  We didn't go too far - then we turned around and went back.  It was a great outing - for both of us.

The only negative that I can think of is that Billie got very very dirty.  The Thunderbird Trail was indeed a dirt trail so there was dust flying with every footstep/pawstep.  Billie's belly is a low-rider so she came home a couple shades darker than she left.  But she was very cooperative and let me put her in my tub and spray her off. 

That is my story about our hike on the Thunderbird Trail.

Orange

I volunteered at the "Kiss Me I'm Irish" fun run event near the Jobbing.com Arena on Saturday.  I was stationed at the T-shirt tables.  We would issue the registered runners their t-shirts.  It got really wild and crazy for a while.  The t-shirts were of course - green.  But even as the participants and their cheering squads arrived they were already dresssed head to toe in green "costumes".  I never saw so much green apparel before in my life!  Green shorts, green shirts, green leggings, green shoes, green shoelaces, green foofy skirts, green hats, green hair ties, green neckties, green scarfs, green socks, green decals on the face, well just about anything you could imagine was there and in a shade of green.  Even the dogs that came were all decked out in green.  Whatever.  Now you might ask why the title of my post is orange.

Here is why.

When the event was over I stayed to help clean up.  We packed up all the t-shirts.  We packed up all the registration materials.  We took down the banners and signs.  We took down the tables and chairs.  We took down shade canopys.  You name it we took it down.  Then we started loading it all into a trailer.  Then came the drinks and food/snacks provided for the runners.  Lots of extra cliff bars, cheese and peanut butter sandwich snacks, nuts, chips, crackers, licorice, animal cookies, pop, gatorade, water, even doggie snacks.  That all went fairly smoothly.  But then came the fruit that they had cut up.  There was lots left over.  Apples, bananas, and - you guessed it - oranges.  None of us could stand the thought of them trashing all that stuff.  So the lady in charge asked if I could use the oranges.  I promised her I would juice them all and not waste them.  So she sent me home with a 40 pound box of cut up oranges.  I promise it was huge. 

Anyway, after I finally got home I sat down to rest my feet and legs for a few short minutes.  Then I got up and spent the next hour and a half juicing those oranges.  I got some really good use out of my ebay buy - a Juice-o-mat.  Great juicing gizmo.  I ended up with 2 trash bags full of orange rinds plus my large stainless steel popcorn bowl was full of orange rinds too. 

Any guesses on how much juice I ended up getting out of those oranges?  First you'll have to look at a few pictures.

Now I can tell you.  I ended up with just under 3 gallons of orange juice.  And that was after I gave a gallon ziploc baggie filled with the orange wedges to the missionaries!  Doug wasted no time and has already polished off the first pint of orange juice.  The rest is frozen. 

P.S.  Added bonus.  When I left the event to come home the guy in charge asked if I wanted a Gatorade.  I said sure.  He sent me home with a dozen of the larger bottles of Gatorade.  Guess what color I got?  ORANGE!  Yippee!

Crack of Dawn

Well this morning I got up at the crack of dawn (actually before that).  Billie is staying here with us for a few days.  She slept really well last night on her blankets on the floor of our room.  She didn't even attempt to get on the bed - yay!  Anyway at about 3:30 am she started moving around and licking herself and her collar was jingling all the way.  At that point I got up and let her out.  Then when she came in I just stayed in the family room on the couch.  I didn't want Doug to  get annoyed.  But really - he had to be in to work by 5:30 am.  So even with Billie and me on the couch giving him quiet in the bedroom - he had to get up at the crack of dawn anyway. 

Here's hoping that Billie and I can get a little nap in later.  Oh, excuse me.  I guess I woke Billie up from a nap just now.  That's why she doesn't care that she wakes up at the crack of dawn.  She is a napping machine and can nap anytime anywhere - except at 3:30 am.

Floors

This week is spring break at GCC.  That means no fitness classes for me.  So this morning I spent 4 hours cleaning part of my tile floors. That was a job!  The problem is that I have at just as much floor that still needs scrubbing.  Sheesh!  My arms, fingers, and knees are sore.  But, dang, the floors are looking pretty good right now.  Hoping they stay that way forever!  Wish me luck on that one.

Eggs

One of my Aerobics Instructors is Mormon.  She also hikes a lot.  I have been hiking with her quite a few times.  So she emailed me this week and said they were hiking from Dreamy Draw to Squaw Peak and back on Saturday afternoon.  I knew Doug was going to be gone so I took her up on the offer. 

We hiked 6.6 miles at the speed of 2.8 miles per hour.  You math lovers can figure out how long the hike took us to finish. 

Anyway, when we finished she asked me to come over to her house and get some eggs.  I was happy to do that.  Farm fresh eggs?  You bet! 

She has about 12 chickens - 11 hens and 1 feisty rooster that loves to attack my friend on occasion.  I've seen the buises and scratches on her legs when she has given us the run-down about the attacks.  So as we walked back through the chickens she carried a large stick to protect herself from this rooster.  She also poured out some "scratch" feed to keep all the chickens happy and away from us as we gathered the eggs. 

She put the fresh eggs in a bag along with about 20 others that were sitting in a basket on the counter.  The actual total was 25 - but one developed a surface crack on the way home.  When I washed it - it sort of imploded and there was no saving the contents.  So I ended up with 24 organic and free range chicken eggs.  YUMMY!

The fun part is that the eggs come in many shades.  Here is a picture which shows them arranged from lightest to darkest.  It is quite pretty to see.
 

Ooops!  One of those eggs doesn't belong.  Can you find the egg that doesn't belong?  Yes, there it is on the far right.  It turns out that that egg is larger and much darker than the others.  It is also wood.  It will serve as this years Egg Bash Trophy. 

There have been silver trophies and at least 1 golden trophy.  The gold one was made in error but by the time I remembered it should be silver it was too late to make a correction.  This year is Arizona's Centennial celebration so I decided to make the egg trophy a lovely copper color.  I know that makes you all so much more determined to be the grand winner this year.  It will be a one-of-a-kind, never to be repeated trophy. So start warming up your release arms, perfecting your rolling technique, and zero in on your aim for a fun Egg Bash 2012. 

On the Lake

Yesterday we had a wonderful day on the lake.  We met up with Scott, my sister, Trudy, and my mom and went sailing on Tempe Town Lake.  It was a beautiful day - possibly 75 degrees.  So when we got the sailboat all rigged and in the lake we got settled on the boat and Doug pushed us off for some sailing adventures.  The problem is that he pushed us off while standing on the dock.  I was left holding the tiller and in charge of the adventure.  YIKES! Scary - not just for me but for my passengers as well. 

Scott had been sailing with us once before so I was using his "expertice" to help us move smoothly on the lake.  Trudy and Mom were great passengers.  And actually I had Trudy working the jib sail on the starboard side of the boat. I couldn't have asked for any better helpers than Trudy and Scott - unless I had some more experienced people on board. 

For the most part we had some good wind and made some progress in our journey around the lake.  I think everyone really enjoyed it.  I had one or two small glitches.  But as the saying goes, "What happens on board - stays on board."  So we will go  to our graves keeping those glitches to ourselves.  Right, everyone?  Good.

 Well here are a few pictures we'll share of our fun on the lake.