gAzSelin

Window Wells

2012-02-14T04:38:00.000-08:00

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

2012-02-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

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

2012-02-10T05:32:00.000-08:00

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

2012-02-08T17:28:00.000-08:00

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

2012-02-05T05:31:00.000-08:00

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

2012-02-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

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

2012-02-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

Packages from Grandma

are on the way for 3 special kids in Utah.

Hope you get them very soon.

Solo Voyage

2012-01-30T05:21:00.000-08:00

In case you don't know - we have a Capri Sun 14.2 sailboat. It is the same kind of boat we took our lessons in. And yesterday we actually hooked it up and took it to Tempe Town Lake for our Solo Voyage - without instructors.

We got to the lake at about 1:00 - Scott met us there. He had purchased our Tempe Town Lake Permit so he had to come apply it to our boat before we could put it in the water. We got the boat rigged and ready for action.

Our Solo Voyage had two minor glitches. First as we were getting the boat into the water my pinky finger started bleeding. And that thing was a gusher that wouldn't stop. It was dripping all over - crazy because I didn't even feel anything. I had to go to the truck to try to stop the bleeding. I used a beach towel but in the meantime I dripped blood on the seat. Then when I used the towel the blood was oozing through it and seeping onto the seat while I looked for a bandaid. I don't know what was going on but I am happy to say that I did eventually stop the bleeding. Crazy.

The other minor glitch was when we were actually raising the main sail. We could get it up - but not quite all the way. We were 8 or 10 inches from the top of the 20 foot mast. It seemed to be hanging up on something. We hoisted it up and tugged - then we would take it down and try again. We were stumped. But luckily for us there was a Sailing Club member standing around watching newbie sailors make mistakes. He came over and watched us for a while. Made a suggestion or two and then hit on the problem. We had the boom vang attached and it was hindering the full deployment of the main sail. We unhooked the boom vang and voila - the sail was fully extended and we were ready to push off and start our Solo Voyage. We thanked the guy and set sail.

We had the most perfect sailing day ever. The wind was great! It kept blowing the entire time we were there. It wasn't too strong - but gave us lots of practice moving around the lake and making turns. We never had such a good wind at any of our classes. So we were just moving all around and having a great time. Our friend, the Sailing Club member? He used his binoculars and watched us while we took our Solo Voyage out on the lake. He might have gotten a few laughs. But we came back to the dock dry - and that should give us extra points. The reason we don't have any pictures of us out on the lake is I was too chicken to take the camera out with us - just in case we had to exercise our capsize recovery skills. Maybe next time we'll be braver.

We count our first Solo Voyage and a huge success. So if anyone wants to come with us some time and try out some sailing - let us know. We'll try to squeeze you into our schedule.

100 miles

2012-01-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I officially finished my 100 miles.

I feel really good about it.

I turned my form in and will have earned my free limited edition t-shirt to commemorate the fete. Actually now that I've done the math - that t-shirt cost me $54 in park entrance fees, plus gas money to drive all over the valley to get to the various parks, and a fair amount of blisters, sweat, and tears.

I'm not complaining - just saying.

Sunrise - one of the best!

A perfect saguaro specimen.

One arm has a crested top - sort of looks like a heart.

This arch to nowhere was just outside the park area.

The arch was lined with lights -

upon further inspection they were

Christmas-type lights mounted and enclosed in a jars.

Dinner and Dessert

2012-01-26T05:38:00.000-08:00

Tonight we are having friends over for dinner. I'm going all out and making . . . . . . TACOS. Doesn't everyone like tacos? So today I need to get a few groceries in order to make that happen. And I haven't decided yet what to make for dessert. Lemon poppy seed bundt cake? Brownies? Ice cream bars? Nothing is sounding right just yet.

Maybe I should make Churros. Last Wednesday a professional baker came over and taught the Young Men how to make Pate Choux. Then they made cream puffs and eclairs in the shapes of mice, swans, and even words like "Happy 45th" (it was his 45th anniversary that night). Back to the topic at hand - he said you use this Pate Choux for many many other things including Churros. So maybe I'll do that for dinner's dessert - but probably not. I'm just plain lazy!

Balanced

2012-01-24T12:33:00.000-08:00

I consider myself very balanced - today especially.
I went to my Pilates class - second one of the semester. She had a pre-test planned to evaluate our flexibility, strength, endurance, and balance. When it came time for the balance test we all got a big exercise ball. The routine was as follows:
1. Sit on the ball and lift your toes/feet from the floor and balance for one minute - if you are successful you move on to:
2. Continue sitting on the ball and kick your feet out away from the ball and balance for one minute - if you are succcessful you move on to:
3. Continue sitting on the ball with your feet kicked away from the ball and extend your arms out and above your head and balance for one minute - if you are successful you move on to:
4. Continue as you are and play catch with someone who is out of the challenge - so continue balancing and playing catch for one minute - if you are successful you move on to:
5. Maneuver yourself on the ball and get in a kneeling position on the ball - remove hands from ball by straighten your body into a standing position (only you are on your knees) and continue balancing for one minute - if you are successful you are deemed balanced for life (or something like that).
The idea is to move seamlessly through the progressions. No putting feet down and starting another minute fresh - we had to move from each progression without stopping our balancing act.

There was a girl in the back of the room named Ann. She had shamed us all during the other skill tests. She always went the entire time as we were all struggling, shaking, and sweating. So the pressure was on. I was hoping I could do pretty good on the balance test.

So when the test started I focused on one point on the floor and began to balance on the ball. Number 1 was simple. Number 2 was pretty easy too - I had a few wiggles but nothing too major. Number 3 was just about the same. Number 4 was a problem because the guy who came to play catch with me stood in front of my focal point. But I determined I was not going to break my gaze and look up at him. So I managed to stare in the direction of my focal point and still see the ball coming through peripheral vision and catch it and throw it back. Whew - a few more wiggles. Moving into number 5 was challenging and she actually let our feet go momentarily on the floor but we had to immediately get up onto the ball on our knees and get our hands off the ball. I was successful! Almost immediately I realized I couldn't last the entire minute. I could feel my balance was off and I was slowly - very slowly - moving backwards. I tried to reach my arms as far forward as I could to try to recover my balance but it didn't work. I did manage to stay in that position for 25 more seconds.

And when I was done everyone clapped for me. I guess I won the balance test with a total of 4 minutes 25 seconds. I'll take it. Don't ask how strong my stomach muscles are - I stink at sit ups!

More hiking

2012-01-20T22:42:00.000-08:00

Today I did more hiking. I drove out to White Tanks. I parked outside the park so I only had to pay $2 to get in. But that also meant a 1/4 mile walk to the park. Forgot the camera. Dang! I completed 11.4 miles though. The cool thing about today was seeing so many military jets flying around. I kept seeing them fly over by twos. In the morning I saw them flying away from Luke. Then in the afternoon they all returned. I bet I saw 10 pairs flying overhead in the afternoon. Now that was cool!

I don't think I'll be doing any more hiking tomorrow. Why? Because between Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's hiking I have booked 34.2 miles. My feet are feeling the miles. And I just did the math - I have a total of 96.3 miles complete. WaHoo! I think I can afford to take tomorrow off and finish during the week. But then again - 4 miles will feel really short. Maybe I should do more hiking tomorrow. What do you think?

McDowell Mtns.

2012-01-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

Why did I decide to take the 100 mile hiking challenge? I don't know - but I did and I am going to finish it. I have until January 30th to complete the 100 miles. I have hiked in each of the 8 listed Maricopa County Parks. Let me list them for you: Cave Creek, Estrella Mountain, Lake Pleasant, McDowell Mountain, San Tan Mountain, Spur Cross Ranch, Usery Mountain, and White Tanks. Each one of those visits has cost $6 to enter. I have hiked in the White Tanks twice so far with probably 2 more trips needed to finish up. It happens to be the closest to us.

Anyway, these pictures document my trip to the McDowell Mountains on Wednesday. That was a looong drive from my house. But I had decided from the beginning that I was going to go to every park they listed on the hike challenge. So off I went. An hour and a half later I arrived.

I went alone because Doug has abandoned his quest for 100 miles. Actually it was my idea to begin with so he probably didn't even want to do the challenge in the first place.

The trails in the McDowell Mountains weren't marked as well as some of the other parks were and I ended up outside of the actual mapped trails and probably hiked at least 2 miles on other trails until I found out exactly where I was. Whew! That was close.

This rusted trough was on my map - believe it or not. You don't see too many of those while hiking around in the desert. So I knew exactly where I was. One noteworthy observation from Wednesday's hike was seeing a wolf. He was wandering around down in a valley following a dry wash. Probably looking for food. I watched him for a few minutes. Luckily I was not on his dinner menu.

Check off 14.4 more miles on my 100 mile quest. I got to drive home at 4:30 - all the way across town in the rush hour traffic. That was fun! NOT! But I just put on my "be patient" hat and enjoyed the ride. The sunset was pretty beautiful.

The hills are alive . . . . with the sound of music!

2012-01-17T05:56:00.000-08:00

Climb every mountain . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ford every stream . . . . . . . . .

Follow every rainbow . . . . . . . .

Till you find your . . . . . . . .

truck!

Now that felt good!

Sailing, Sailing

2012-01-15T22:04:00.000-08:00

Well as you can see below - we do have an actual sailboat.

Doug has been figuring out how to get the mast up on the boat.

And as you can also see below - he figured it out.

Once the mast was up it was easy to rig everything else.

Boom attached to mast and sail.

Main sail being hoisted on the mast.

Sail going up - notice how cool that "DS" is on the sail.

Might those be Dougs initials?

Yes, but the boat is also called a Daysailer- hence the DS.

Main sail up and jib being hoisted.

Main sail and jib sail ready for sailing.

The sailboat and her captain.

Now we really need to get this out on the lake.

Then we will be sailing, sailing.

P.S. We are taking suggestions for names for the boat.

We might have to christen her before we take her out.

More Sweet Smile

2012-01-06T06:09:00.000-08:00

My last post "By Degrees" felt good to write up. Yes, having the missionaries here, "it's a blessing . . . . and a curse." Most of the times it is wonderful. It is not so wonderful when you loan your whole house vacuum to them to use ONE TIME and it comes back broken! Not this set of missionaries - but our own Elder "Fix-it" did that one. He was sure it wasn't broken - but it was. Yes it still sucks and the brush works but the head of the vacuum just hangs down when you pick it up. The latch/release thingy got broken. He knows they didn't do it - but I know he did. I spent most of that afternoon fuming, grumbling under my breath, near tears, etc. Those things did nothing to help so I don't know why I wasted my energy being upset. It is still usable and for that I am grateful - weak sweet smile needed here.

Other little bothersome items are when they assemble a huge ward map and then need something huge to mount it on the wall. WHY? Then they need bandaids, burn ointment or aloe vera (I have none), upset stomach medicine, glue sticks, etc. Other bothersome moments are when you realize they snoop in your game closets without permission, every empty space becomes "theirs" - not happening, they think the basement is their man-cave and it is so dirty and messy as to be hazardous to their health and ours to go down there, they keep the thermostat at a pleasant 65 during the summer - when they aren't even there, everytime there is a transfer more junk seems to accumulate and nobody knows what to do with it so it just piles up, and when they bring a huge jug of syrup and catsup home from the church fridge cleaning project and give it to us to use - sweet smiles all around.

This week was another "it's a curse" moment. Elder Halligan came into the house and walked up to me and said sweetly, "Sister Selin? I was wondering if you could help us out. I would really appreciate if you could. (sweet smile included here)." Looked over and saw a huge white garbage bag in his hands. He said, "Our Mission President is friends with some guy who does a Farmers' Market. When he doesn't sell all his bread products he gives it to the Mission President and he gives it to us missionaries when we have meetings. We try to use it but sometimes it goes to waste. The Mission President's wife said that has to stop - so give it to your ward Relief Society Presidents. They can make sure it gets used." We thought, "Hey we live with the Relief Society President - isn't that convenient? So we brought this bread and hope you can help us out." First of all - THANKS to the Mission President's Wife! Now I have a table full of artisan-style breads (day or two old) to try to dole out to people who probably don't really want it. But I smiled sweetly and said I'd try. Elder Halligan said, "Thank you so much, Sister Selin! (sweet smile included here.)"

Aren't we blessed?

And all this for $75 a month in compensation.

Sweet Smile

By Degrees

2012-01-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

The beginning step was easy enough. Elder Halligan came upstairs and walked up to me and said sweetly, "Sister Selin? I was wondering if you could mend my pants. I would really appreciate if you could. (sweet smile included here)." I took a look at the pants. There was a small half inch tear in the stitching on the crotch of the pants. Simple to fix. Not a problem. So I agreed to fix them. Elder Halligan said, "Thank you so much, Sister Selin! (sweet smile included here.)"

A couple of days later - Elder Halligan came upstairs and walked up to me and said sweetly, "Sister Selin? I was wondering if you could show me how to sew this button on my shirt. I would really appreciate if you could. (sweet smile included here)." I took a look at the shirt. Sure enough there was a button missing at the neck of his white dress shirt. Simple to fix. Not a problem. So I agreed to "show" him how to sew the button on. Elder Halligan said, "Thank you so much, Sister Selin! (sweet smile included here.)"

A few more days passed before -Elder Halligan came upstairs and walked up to me and said sweetly, "Sister Selin? I was wondering if you could hem these pants for me. I don't know how much sewing you do but I would really appreciate it if you could help me out. (sweet smile included here)." The pants were bought, hemmed, and sent from Missionary Mall in Orem. I wondered why they didn't get the hem right - but evidently the pants are a different style and don't hang the same as the other ones. So I took a look at the pants. I made sure he only wanted a straight hem and nothing tricky like a cuff or antyhing special. I know I can do them but was hesitant about agreeing - don't need the added pressure. Not so simple to fix but I agreed to hem them. Elder Halligan said, "Thank you so much, Sister Selin! (sweet smile included here.)" I still haven't even pinned the hem up for him to try them on. So he will still have to wait until I get to them.

My problem is that he moved me along from very simple sewing tasks to a big "better look professional" hem - by degrees. A little at a time. And I fell for it. So I am a little afraid about what sewing task might come after I get the hem done. I mean will he request a quilt made from all his mission ties? What about darning his socks - I'd send those to Doug's mom to do. Or will he need a new suit and come to me with a stack of material, no pattern, and only a week to do the project? I'm not sure. But I guess if I don't do a great job on the hem - maybe he'll think twice before asking me to help him out. Thank you very much!

Our Own 30 Year Amazing Race

2012-01-02T10:03:00.000-08:00

December 29th marked our 30 year anniversary. For the occasion I planned an Amazing Race style evening. If I may say so myself - it was Amazing!

I guess I'm going to have to either do this in stages (the photos aren't uploading in a timely fashion) OR do a short comic book about it. I'm leaning toward comic book. We shall see.

So you'll have to wait to see what happened on Our Own 30 year Amazing Race.

We love our . .

2011-12-19T08:11:00.000-08:00

Being here in Utah has been quite an adventure so far. Even though the Kevan's have had coughs, runny noses, and a round of the stomach flu I have managed to remain unscathed. I feel lucky. During the past 2 weeks I have figured a few things out:

Sadie is a chatter box. She loves to talk. She loves to talk! Did I mention that she loves to talk!! So when there is no talking she's probably doing somthing she shouldn't be doing. But either way - we love our Sadie.

Zachary isn't a chatter box. Not yet. The one word we can count on him saying - guesses anyone? The word "no". He doesn't even mean no most of the time. It usually means yes. We have been trying to get him to nod his head yes. He has us working full-time getting games out of the closet for him. He goes to the closet and looks up. We know he wants a game. We ask him if he wants a game and he pleasantly says, "no". That means yes. Then I have to lift him up so he can point out the game he wants. It usually has a lot of pieces. We get them out and go through all the pieces. Then before you know it he is singing his version of "clean up clean up everybody everywhere". So cute. Then we put the pieces back and put the game on the shelf. Then it is on to another game. He does a lot of things that Sadie does. He likes to follow her around and then play nicely with her. Well sometimes the nicely part isn't quite right. But we love our Zachary.

Emery is coming up on 3 weeks old. She passed her 2 week check-up with flying colors. Actually he had her tested for jaundice - but she wasn't really yellow I just think someone in the lab had a boat payment due. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 12 oz. She seems to be a little congested. We consider it fortunate that she hasn't had the stomach flu that everyone else in her family had. We love our Emery.

As usual Rob is taking good care of his family. He works hard every day. Then comes home and lets the kids crawl and jump all over him. We love our Rob.

Lindsey has the patience of Job. Really! Her kids are a jumble of action, talking, playing, arguing, fighting, and being nice too but she just keeps her cool through it all and manages them perfectly. We love our Lindsey.

It seems that my description of Zachary has taken the most space but I must tell one more story. We had a huge batch of delicious popcorn. Zac and Sadie had their own bowls of popcorn. But Zac just couldn't stand leaving Sadie alone. When her guard was down he would dart over and steal some of her popcorn. And then Sadie would howl and fuss. She would go take some back. Then after a mild scolding from dad they would be fine for a while. But Zac was always on alert and as soon as Sadie was distracted and not protecting her bowl he would zoom over for another attack. It was quite funny to watch. I'm sure dad was frustrated with the entire incident. But I'm sure it is just a small precurser to many future events of sibling teasing.

And for sure: WE LOVE OUR KEVAN FAMLY!

Emery

2011-12-15T09:09:00.000-08:00

Emery is beautiful.

Emery is the center of our attention.

Even though Emery could demand a lot more time

she seems content to eat, sleep, and use her plumbing.

Here are a few pictures of my time here so far.

I'm loving it!

I even won over Zachary -

that is a great accomplishment!

Less that one day old, Emery meets Grandpa.

Alittle snow for Sadie and Zach to play in.

Calvin seems to still like us - Shanna too.

When given the chance Emery sleeps arms up by her head.

Emery and I doing a little syncronized sleeping.

That's all for now.

It already seems Emery has been a part of this family for a long time.

She's definitely a keeper!

Baby

2011-12-02T04:31:00.001-08:00

This morning I am frantically making plans to leave Phoenix and get to Springville. WHY? Lindsey decided to have her baby 2 weeks early so I will head up there to help her. It seems that Doug will drive me up there today and then I changed my ticket to arrive back home shortly before Christmas.

Oh, you probably want the details. She had a baby girl on December 1st 8 lbs. 1oz. 20". They named her Emery. She's quite photogenic too.

11-11-11

2011-12-01T05:02:00.001-08:00

This year Veterans Day was on November 11th. Actually that happens every year. But this year the date was 11-11-11. That is kind of special!

Doug and I were out racking up some more hiking miles that day. We had finished hiking and just left the park boundaries when we realized that our odometer was about to make an interesting milestone. Check this out. (Please excuse the dust)

Don't worry. The picture documenting our odometer reading 110,011 was taken after we safely pulled off the road and positioned the camera.

ISAAC

2011-11-28T04:39:00.001-08:00

Our family is so lucky.

We had a Thanksgiving Baby 24 years ago.

This year we celebrated his birthday on Saturday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC!

Our day went something like this.

I made breakfast for Isaac and we served it to him in bed while singing a rousing version of Happy Birthday.

After eating he opened his gift.

It was pretty special because Doug wrote a poem to explain what we were giving him and would need to shop for during the day.

Here is the card and poem - you can let us know how you like it.

The holiday season gets started each year

When pilgrims and turkeys come out and appear

They come to adore him, to bring him good cheer

For it's Isaac's birtday, we hope he'll appear.

He gets a few presents - traditional stuff

A check with some moola, not filler or fluff

But this year we'll outfit his dogs with a treat

some shoes to help comfort his poor aching feet!

So with these new shoes so handsome and fine

Go conquer the Amazon jungle and vine

No more dreading work's unbearable days

Your feet will be comfy and singing your praise.

And with this small gift, your feet will feel cool

They'll help meet your goal - to get back to school

So keep working hard, and we'll shout out loud

"We knew you could do it, you sure make us proud!"

We (myself, Isaac, Doug, and Scott) left Phoenix at about 9:30.

Stopped at 3 stores looking for the good sturdy shoes for Isaac.

Continued on to Mesa without new shoes.

Arrived at Scott's house to assess and resolve "issues" so he could install and start using his washer and dryer.

A run to the hardware store to get needed hardware was needed.

I stayed home to clean the appliances.

Discovered that Scott's cleaner bleached the color out of my shirt. Dang!

Left for mom's house to enjoy a nice birthday lunch at The Olive Garden.

Returned to mom's and Scott and I did some filming while using the golfcart.

Isaac advised and assisted. That was fun!

Doug returned to Scott's house and made a little progress on installation.

We left mom's and headed back home.

Stopped on the way home to get the shoes Isaac liked best.

I gave Doug a hair cut.

Later we had cake and ice cream.

Isaac failed to blow out all 24 candles!

Wow!

That's a first!

He nearly passed out trying!

Due to cheating nobody saw Isaac's teeth on his first bite of cake.

Kristina came over and we played Stack Attack and Monopoly Deal.

That ended our day to celebrate Isaac's birthday.

Google +

2011-11-27T04:59:00.001-08:00

Our last attempt at video calls with the Utah kids failed! We tried to get Google + going on - that way we could have a multi-computer chat. But for some reason we couldn't do it. Then when we tried to do a single person video chat that wouldn't work either. So we made do with a regular phone call (not nearly as satisfying). Anyway, I'm happy to report that we seem to have our problems fixed and we will be up and running for a Google + video call with the kids today.

Why am I so sure about that? Well because Doug had Scott and Isaac working together to make it possible. And they even tried it out by having a 3 computer video call going on. Here is documentation of the event.

Hopefully Google + works when the computers are more than 5 feet apart too! It was so funny to see and hear them sitting next to each other in the same room video chatting! Silly guys!

Turkey

2011-11-26T21:30:00.001-08:00

I have lots of posts to catch up on. But today I thought I would show you a perfectly cooked turkey. They don't often look so beautiful. The great thing is that the meat was tender and juicy too. We gobbled up lots of that turkey. Yummy!

Winter Weather

2011-11-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

We are having a wonderful autumn. We have been having the most heavenly temperatures. We had a couple of rains too. So as soon as the evenings cool down we open the windows and blow cool air into the house all night long (providing the cattle yard stink doesn't float our way). By 8 in the morning we close everything up and enjoy a comfortably cool house all day long. We have been enjoying the routine completely.
Enter - cold front. Most recently it has been downright cold. We are actually having some Winter Weather! I love the cold. I sort of save up or make up from the hot sweaty weather we know will come again soon enough. Well with the cold front we had clouds, huge wind, and rain. Yay for rain! But a few nights ago all the wind and clouds and rain stopped and the sky got clear and it got COLD! In the morning our outside thermometer was registering 38 degrees. Ch ch ch chilly! That was Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning is also tennis morning. It took me longer to get ready because I was layering in order to stay warm. I wore a long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve shirt on top. I wore 2 jackets on top of that. Then I had on capris with track pants over that. Then I spent a good amount of time searching for a warm knitted beanie hat and my gloves. BTW - I found them eventually. Anyway - here is a picture documenting the ensemble. It did keep me warm. Actually after a few short minutes on the court I ended up taking off the jackets, the track pants, the beanie, and eventually the gloves too. So Winter Weather you didn't beat me.

Now the curious thing is that the missionaries who live downstairs had their double fan unit in their window all night and morning blowing that Winter Weather cold air into the house. Why? I can't tell you that. But their actions resulted in our inside temperature hovering around 63. Now that is chilly.

Lack of Posts

2011-11-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

Can you all visualize a sad frowny face? That is what I look like every day when I come to my blog page. You see, the old desktop computer died. It died a rather slow and painful death. But finally it refused to even turn on. It still sits here, on the floor next to the desk, haunting my days and nights. The problem is that it died with all its contents encased inside. Those contents are mine. MINE - I SAY!! All my documents, pictures, and so many of my favorite places on the internet. But the old computer carcass refuses to give them up.

Actually, Doug had a back-up machine that supposedly has all those contents as well, but we now find out it isn't completely compatible with this windows version. Rats! It couldn't have been easy for us? No. But he has assured me that he can get stuff off if I'm specific about what I want. He doesn't seem to understand - I WANT IT ALL! So I am at his mercy to get stuff that I want/need. And since he rarely sits here at this computer I have to interrupt to have him and his expertice working on my demands.

So here I sit - and now you know why there has been a Lack of Posts.

If anyone wants to do something nice for me they could send me a couple pictures of my cute grandkids, siblings, parents and any in-laws as well so I can at least put them up on my computer as wallpaper. Hint, hint. And don't waste too much time feeling sorry for me. I have been crazy busy lately too - I'll try to take some pictures and gets new posts coming your way soon!

Tennis

2011-10-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

A friend gave me her ticket to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America Tennis Championships at Surprise Arizona. Wow! That was a mouthful! From now on I will refer to it as Tennis. There, much easier. It happens every year and tennis "has beens" or putting it in a better light previous tennis champions come and participate. This year we had Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Mats Wilander, Chris Evert, and Tracy Austin.

Anyway, I got her Saturday night ticket. I went with a friend of hers and we enjoyed the cool evening out at the Surprise recreation Campus Tennis & Racquet Complex - another mouthful.

Here is the rundown on the evening:

Semi-Final #1 - Courier def Wilander 6-3

Semi-Final #2 - Sampras def Chang 6-3

Championship - Sampras def Courier 8-7

I had a good time watching Tennis.

@#$!!@#$

2011-10-12T04:45:00.000-07:00

@#$!!**@#$!

Doug is out of town and I can't figure out his alarm clock. It is a projection clock and I like being able to see the time on the ceiling - but he has the alarm set for 4:30 am! And if you are clever you can tell I CAN NOT figure out how to disable the @#$!!**@#$ alarm! So I end up wrestling with it every morning - hitting snooze and then wrestling with it again a few minutes later! This morning I gave up on trying to go back to sleep.

@#$!!**@#$!

Is summer finally over?

2011-10-07T05:07:00.000-07:00

it is 5:00 in the morning. I am wide awake and sitting in the family room with a blanket over my shoulders. I have a question bouncing around inside my head: "Is summer finally over?" I probably shouldn't have even thought about that. But I was like the guy in Ghostbusters who wasn't supposed to think about a villian who could attack - but he just couldn't help it. It just popped in there. And just like that guy, when you live in the desert it is dangerous to think - "Is summer finally over." If fate hears that thought bouncing around in the minds of us desert rats - then usually another round of three digit temperatures comes our way.

Last week we were into the 100's all week. It was hot. The nights were hot too. No chance of putting our fans in the widows. Even Monday was pretty warm. But things are feeling different now. Even the weather men seem to imply that summer is gone and we will be free to enjoy the outdoors once again. I mean really enjoy it. The next 6 months in Phoenix will be heavenly! I am so looking forward to it!

The proof this morning is this: Outside temperature 49.6 - Inside temperature 68.4! That is why I couldn't resist asking the question - "Is summer finally over?" All I can say now is - I CERTAINLY HOPE SO!!!!

Amazing Race

2011-09-25T13:04:00.001-07:00

To all my family and friends.

I am sorry to inform you that

until further notice

I will be busy on Sunday evenings

from 7-8 pm (AZ time).

A new season of Amazing Race starts tonight.

YES!!

FHE - Mystery Dinner

2011-09-25T05:47:00.001-07:00

We actually had a planned FHE a few weeks ago. WE did an oldie but a goodie. We had a Mystery Dinner. The participants were: Doug, Isaac, Kristina, Scott, and myself. The idea was that each of us would be given an amount of money. We would go to the store and buy anything for our dinner. It could be something you cook. It could be something already cooked. It could be a protein, vegetable, or dessert. Participants could hook up and jointly use their money to buy something together. They COULD NOT spend more money than they were given. No pitching in a few cents - AND we would collect receipts to make sure there was no cheating! The left over change was also collected - this was not a money making event for the participants! If some basic sauces or butter or ketchup was needed - those items could be used out of our home supplies. Also whatever you selected, you were responsible to cook and get ready for the Mystery Dinner. PLUS - all items had to be shared with everyone. No keeping your items for yourself!

So this night we were each given an envelope with $3.50 inside. We all drove to Fry's and then scattered.

Doug got what I thought he would. He got a bag of frozen french fries. Then he surprised us by getting a box of a chicken flavored noodle side dish and a single package of Fig Newtons. Nice touch. (Isaac busting in on Doug's photo op.)

I ended up getting a package of spaghetti and a jar of sauce. Basic and a little boring but it would fill us up if everything else was sweets.

I had to get stuff for Scott because he was going to be a little late. But he had thought out his contribution and it was a real winner with everyone. He wanted to get stuff for guacamole. So he had enough money for one avocado, one tomato, and a guacamole spice envelope.

Isaac and Kristina pooled their money and got two giant burritos, a bag of Sour Cream and Onion chips, and a pcakage of M&M cookies. Yummy! So for their burritos we used some salsa and sour cream from the fridge. Also Scott's guacamole went really nicely with the burritos.

After I had shopped for myself and Scott I had some extra change. I also got Doug's extra change and went back in for a couple of candy bars for dessert. I had enough for of them. So I put the Milky Way with Doug's dinner, the Snickers with mine, and the Twix with Scott's.

After all the shopping was done I collected receipts and change. This was all that was left over - 53 cents. Pretty good. I would count that as a successful FHE - Mystery Dinner.

Some News

2011-09-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

I have some news.

A few weeks ago there was another missionary transfer. Elder Hohman (Mr. Fix-It) is out and Elder Johnson is in.

This is Elder Johnson and Elder Waynick. This set of missionaries seem to have a more traditional schedule and lots less grease under their fingernails. I am very happy about that! Doug and I both think Elder Johnson looks like our nephew, Kevin DeWitt. I'm not sure the picture shows the resemblance or not.

Yesterday I trimmed our tomatoe plants way back. I am hoping to get a fall crop of tomatoes. Our summer crop looked promising but other than a few tomatoes - they were very small and disappointing. The red tomatoes that are on the plants nowadays seem to have wierd lumps and bumps and look almost like an "alien" variety. I think the extreme heat in August must have boiled the newly polinated fruit and caused it to grow in very unique and unpredictable ways. Here are a few pictures.

We just found a scorpion in the house. It was on the plastic chair mat in front of our desk with THIS COMPUTER. I left the computer and just seconds later came back to find the nasty little critter. It was so near my bare feet! YIKES! I am still walking around with my toes curled under and my eyes peeled in case another intruder found its way into the house. I guess it is time for another Scorpion Hunting Blitz - starting tonight!

So much for Some News from me.

Ward Variety Show Videos

2011-09-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

These are the long awaited for

Ward Variety Show Videos.

Ward Variety Show

2011-09-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

We had a Ward Variety Show this past Saturday. My last post was about the dessert I brought for the event.

When it was announced that the ward would have a talent show - the sign-ups were nearly non-existent. When they changed the format to a Variety Show more people seemed slightly more willing.

Doug was coerced into performing on his unicycle. That, of course, would necessitate some brushing up. But he agreed. He left some mad unicycle tracks on our driveway while he practiced. He also suffered a minor wrist injury and an ankle bite from one of the pedals. But by Saturday afternoon he was ready to rumble. He added to his original committment to "ride across the stage once" by first juggling tennis balls (I donated some of those to the cause) and spinning a basketball on his finger. And as promised he did ride across the stage on the unicycle. But he really needed more room to be able to make a turn and really get rolling so he came down onto the cultural hall floor and put on a real show. He not only juggled the tennis balls while riding even if for only a few seconds - but he also made a basket with one of the tennis balls in the basketball hoop - first try. Next he rode the unicycle while spinning the basketball on his finger. Another success. He also ended up by making a basket while riding his unicycle under the basketball backboard - on his first try! The people cheered and gave him a standing ovation! He was awesome!

I signed up for a group number. Our Relief Society Presidency and spouses would perform the Grecian Urn Dance. I had to do a little convincing but we did it. One husband gave his wife the business about not coming if she insisted that he do it. I let them work it out - he came but didn't perform. We performed, we got wet, we got laughs (intended), and it was fun. Many folks have said they thought it was hilarious!

We might or might not have a video recording of our dance -

but our Ward Variety Show was a great success!

Funny Bone

2011-09-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Who is an anatomy expert? Anyone? What is the real name for a spot on our elbows we call a "funny bone"? I'm sure that isn't the real name. But I think the game "Operation" labels it a "funny bone". Does that count?

I have one reason that we call it a funny bone.

I made cupcakes for our Ward Variety Show (future post may or may not document this activity). I had them perfectly frosted with cute sprinkles on them. Cute sprinkles always entice the little kiddos to grab and gobble. I didn't want to bring a tray-full home so the decorations were my no fail solution. So anyway, we loaded needed supplies along with the cupcakes into the truck. I had Doug hold one plate to give me once I was in my seat and buckled in. He got in a hurry and set them down between our seats - on a handy arm rest. Well, I guess you can figure out the rest. He got into his seat and wiggled and got settled in his seat by using his elbow - read "funny bone". I heard an "oopsie" and looked over. Yep he had crushed 3 of the cupcakes - WITH HIS FUNNY BONE! Really smashed them. Rats and double darn!

We took them into the kitchen anyway. I boldly started giving one person my weak explanation of the mis-shaped goodies. Soon my voice was fading out and I turned and walked away looking at my feet (hoping to find $5). No such luck.

But the best part of this funny bone story is that at the end of the activity - every one of those cute, delicious, decorated, and smashed cupcakes were gone! Yes - every one of them!!

Happy Anniversary, Doug!

2011-08-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an anniversary - for Doug.

Yes, 27 years ago yesterday

Doug started working for APS.

He left me in New York

with Scott and a week old Evan -

and flew to Phoenix

to begin his career as an Elecrical Engineer.

If I remember right he flew back on Labor Day Weekend

and we flew back together.

Happy Anniversary, Doug!

We celebrated by driving to the Metro Light Rail station at Christown mall.
We caught the train and rode it to The Old Spaghetti Factory.
We ate a meal.
I got Chicken Parmisiana and Doug got the Baked Chicken Dish.
Both meals were good.
The entre's came with soup or salad (we got the salad),
milk, coffee, and iced or hot tea (we didn't get any of that),
hot loaf of freshly made bread (yummy)
and either vanilla ice cream, spumoni, or rainbow sherbet (we got the sherbet).
The meals were $11.50 and I couldn't even finish mine. So a good deal too.

We returned to the Light Rail station and caught the train continuing to downtown Phoenix.

We got off at the station by the sports arenas.
We walked to the baseball stadium and bought tickets for next Wednesday's game.
Doug and his Young Men are going to a game.
Buying the tickets in person saved $2 per ticket for the online "convenience" fee. SHEESH!

Anyway, after that we walked a few blocks to the station so we could board the train to take us back. We arrived just after the train left. So we would have a 15 or 20 minute wait. It wasn't so bad though. We discovered that there was a solar cooler installed so we enjoyed a cool wait for the train.

HOLD ON! It wasn't a cool wait. It was a cooler wait. Why should I care about the word change? Well yesterday Phoenix set an all-time record high temperature for August - any day in any August in any year since records have been kept - ALL TIME HIGH. What was the record temperature? A mere 117. So when I say "cool wait" that wouldn't really be accurate. But "cooler wait" would be a better description. We could feel the cooler air pumping out of the vents - but this was a totally open air station and the coolness quickly dissipated into the hot humid surrounding air. But being long-time Phoenix residents - we were tough and we didn't care and we still enjoyed the evening.

We shared the train last night with lots of interesting people.

I wonder what the people thought about us?

I don't know - but people watching is always fun.

We enjoyed the evening

and are so glad that Doug's job at APS

has been such a good one and a real blessing in our lives.

Happy Anniversary, Doug!!

Bird Netting

2011-08-24T06:06:00.000-07:00

As my tomatoes started ripening I started noticing something. I would go out in the morning to see the orange/red tomatoes with gouges out of them. The gouges looked suspiciously like bird pecks. Dang, it hate that! They take them before they are quite ripe and ruin them for us.

So off to the hardware store we went to buy some bird netting. First we had to pick off all the ruined tomatoes. Then we placed it over our plants. It was draped carefully and evenly. The bird netting had to overlap the ground on all sides - quite a task. Doug wasn't so worried about the bird netting needing to be completely to the ground but I was. So I made sure it was secured down with rocks.

But even after we completed the bird netting barrier I suspected that birds might be getting in somehow. Why? Because I still found pecked tomatoes. Not so many as before but every once in a while. Had I missed getting those off the plant originally? No - it looked like a fresh peck.

Well anyway a couple days ago I went out to fine a frantic bird trapped in the bird netting with no way to escape. There it was the dang tomato loving bird. Caught you red handed! Or red beaked! Anyway, it was jumping and trying to fly with no where to go. But immediately instead of wanting to roast that bird for dinner - I was sorry for the bird. So I carefully lifted a portion of the bird netting and then walked to the other side to encourage the bird to go that way. And before I could even see the bird escape - it was gone! Sure enough it had feasted on a few of my ripening tomatoes. Dang bird!

Drain

2011-08-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning at 6:00 am Doug loaded the car with a ladder, 3 pieces of 10 foot long lumber, two drills, big box of screws, glue, a metal brace, a jack, measuring tape, an electric saw for cutting the boards, a flashlight, several clamps, my huge stainless steel bowl, and a variety of other objects. I took my purse. We drove over to our house on 36th Drive. While in the attic a week or so ago he discovered a broken board (truss, strut, something). So he was going to repair it. He crawled in. I handed some stuff up to him. Then I sat on the tailgate and talked to our renter. We had a nice long talk. Doug worked hard, got dirty and sweaty, but was also successful! The repair has been made.

Then we went into the house to check out a "slow drain". That thing wasn't slow - it was stopped. Gross! Anyway, Doug took off the "P trap" to see if that was the problem. Well that pipe basically disintegrated in his hands. It had rusted through and was cracked. We drove to Ace Hardware and made a quick purchase and headed back over. Doug replaced that - but the blockage remained.

Then the renters mentioned they had a snake. We (meaning Doug) then tried that but to no avail. We ended up calling the Rescue Rooter guys to come give us a $99 service. Some few hours later they went over and now it is draining like crazy.

Not 1 hour later the missionaries (our tenants downstairs) came up and mentioned that the tub wasn't draining. WHAT!?! No not that - again. So we tried several variations on plunging. We had two plungers and a tub, toilet, and two sinks. Non of the variations worked any magic. And because we had Courtesty Plumbing come and replace our sewage ejection pump a few months ago (that was an expensive fix and they were very happy to fix it for us $$$$). We feel like we need to call them just in case there is a problem with that. They charge double to come during the weekend - so guess what we are doing? Yep, waiting until Monday. Luckily the missionaries won't have to rough it too much. They just get to use the bathroom upstairs. You know the one I mentioned a few days ago that has clear shower doors. Yes, that's the one. I guess they get to leave their deposits on those clean shower doors for a couple of days.

We hope our drain problem here is fixed tomorrow - and that we don't have to share as much $$$$$ with Courtesy Plumbing as we did last time. But true to their name they always smile and say thanks when we give them our check.

Discovered

2011-08-10T12:47:00.001-07:00

WOW!

I just discovered

that the shower doors

in the pink bathroom

are not opaque but clear glass!

It only took me 3+ hours to figure it out.

Amazing!

And, lucky me,

I got them cleaned off

just a few short weeks

before Isaac will be home.

Goodbye clear glass doors -

hello opaque.

Already

2011-08-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

Already missing our Utah kids and grandkids!

Snow Blower

2011-07-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when it is really hot here I think about being cooler. I can visualize a huge snow blower (used to clear snow off of driveways and sidewalks in some locations during the winter months). I can see the beautiful, cold, white, fluffy snow arching high into the air - and landing into a huge pile. Then I can see myself right on that pile of snow in sunglasses, a sun hat, and with sunscreen on while sitting in a lawn chair in my swimming suit and sipping on an ice cold lemonade. It just seems like heaven.

Well on Saturday I think I figured out how I could actually make that happen. I was having guests to dinner on Sunday so I decided to make some bread. I got out my wheat grinder and put some wheat in it. I plugged it in and turned it on. Doh! Disaster! My freshly ground wheat flour was gracefully arching high into the air and landing in the general area of our table! Did I say, Doh! I forgot to attach the collection bowl to the grinder. Wow does that wheat grinder have power!

So I figure if I fill the wheat grinder with some ice cubes and turn it on, it would perform just like a snow blower and I could be enjoying my dream life on a huge pile of freshly ground snow. It is a definite possibility. I think I'll try it one day soon. Only thing stopping me now is that I have flour everywhere. Yes, even after sweeping, dusting, and vacuuming. So when I get every last drop of flour cleaned up I'll invite you over to enjoy a pile of home-made snow brought to you my my own wheat grinder/snow blower machine. Don't forget your boots!

Birds - Love/Hate Relationship

2011-07-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

One day we saw 2 quail walking along the top of our fence.

I only got a picture one quail -

with topknot perfectly groomed and in place.

Cute. I love that bird!

These are my original shots

of the Baltimore Oriole

that keeps coming to our hummingbird feeder.

I guess when you are desperate for water -

even sugar water is better than none.

I love this bird.

Just showing you how my tomato plants are looking.

Pretty healthy! Right?

Tall, green, giving us yummy tomatoes.

We'll forget that the leaves are curling as long as they give us tomatoes.

I'm not even trying to make the plants look tall.

See me standing on the bricks?

Also notice that we are boat owners - see the boat?

We've had it for almost 2 years.

Guess how many times we have been on the water with it?

You'd be right if you said - NEVER.

We need some sailing lessons and some free time (what is that?).

Then we'll be "sailing sailing over ocean blue".

Now I come to the Hate part of my relationship with birds.

Very rarely do I mention "hate" and "bird" in the same sentence.

But I do hate it when my bird friends do this to my tomatoes:

The birds have finally figured out that they love my tomatoes too.

So I had to pick all my red or reddish tomatoes so they didn't suffer the same demise.

Maybe they aren't quite as ripe - but I'm not making it easy for the birds to share these with me.

But if you don't have feathers or a beak -

you, my friends, are invited over to share these orbs of garden delight.

Aren't they cute?

2011-07-07T10:03:00.001-07:00

Aren't they cute?

Tennis and Fire

2011-07-05T11:32:00.001-07:00

Tennis has been cancelled for 2 weeks due to people traveling and not being able to find subs. Today would normally be a tennis day for me. So instead I decided to make a tennis day for myself. I got a backpack ready by loading a bucket-full of tennis balls, my tennis racket, some water, my phone, and some ID. I rode my bike 1 1/2 miles to a neighborhood park to practice my tennis serve. It turns out I took 57 tennis balls. So my total number of serves was 247 (the math doesn't add up because i decided on the last round I had to re-serve any balls that didn't go over the net - 19). My arm started to get tired - and is sore this morning. Plus we have started our monsoon season and it was humid and I was sweating buckets. But I enjoyed it all the same. Here is evidence of my rocket serve - maybe.

As I pulled into the park I discovered 2 City of Peoria trucks in the parking lot. The "workers" were really busy - talking to each other. I'm sure it was very important city business! Ha, ha, ha. Just 10 feet from their trucks was a plastic garbage bin that had smoke billowing out of it. The smell of smoke was really strong! I don't know how the people in those trucks could have missed it. But as I said the people at the trucks were really busy!! I laid down my bike and ran over and said that there was a fire in the garbage can. They looked up at the crazy lady (me) and slowly looked in the direction of the bin. It was then that the guy jumped to action and got his little 20 ounce water bottle and worked on getting the fire put out. Sheesh! I had like 64 ounces of water with me. I asked if he wanted me to help but I'm sure they didn't want me doing anything due to liability. Anyway, I went on to the tennis courts and watched the action. He made lots of trips to the garbage bin and back to fill his water bottle. They eventually got the fire out and left. When they were gone, I walked over to the bin to take a look. This is what I saw.

This water leaking out the bottom of the bin - remnants of their heroic? fire-fighting actions.

A peek into the bin shows the side of the bin looking charred.

There is a garbage bag melted open with lots of debris from the previous evening's 4th of July celebrations.

Upon closer inspection you can definitely see the culprit of the garbage bin fire. It was the use of the fireworks that are now legally sold and purchased in Arizona. The problem is that in Peoria (where the park is located) it is totally illegal to actually use any of those fireworks. Now I know why that is the rule in Peoria - evidently their city workers do not know what a fire is, how a fire smells, or that a fire produces smoke, and if a garbage bin is smoking - it isn't a cigarette! I guess someone didn't get the memo about the Peoria ban on lighting fireworks. And they definitely did not make sure their used fireworks were all the way out before stuffing them into the bag and throwing them away. Thanks to me and my quick actions a disaster of monumental proportions was averted. Well at least I was at the right place at the right time.

Yay me! I saved the day!

Super Hero

2011-07-01T05:30:00.001-07:00

Well Doug DeWitt is our hero. A Super Hero, really. He showed up at our house (with his right hand man, Kevin) and fixed our A/C unit. We had sprung a leak - I hate it when that happens! But he soldered over the leak and charged our system with that heavenly coolant stuff and before long it cooled from 90 degrees to bearable. A million thanks to the Super Heros who came to our rescue. I only wish I would have taken a picture or two of them.

Off

2011-06-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Main A/C not working. Off.

Secondary unit working. Off.

Blowing cool air from bedrooms with large fan. Off.

Wall thermostat in living room reads: 88. Off.

Coping by wearing a chilly neck. Off.

Waiting for help. Off.

Have a nice day! Off!

My ABC's

2011-06-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sadie likes to sing us the ABC song each week during our video chat. So my post today is my way of doing the ABC song. Enjoy.
There is a change here at our house. We have the missionaries who serve in our ward living with us. They moved in one week ago. They are really busy - we rarely see them. And they are good missionaries. We are enjoying having them here. We hope they are enjoying it here as well. We sort of buttered them up last night by sharing home made popcorn with them. I KNOW they enjoyed that. So here they are - meet Elder Tanner and Elder Hohman.
This morning I went on a bike ride. I left at 9:35 (a little later than I wanted to). I got home at 11:15. I had my Camelback for hydration - and I used it a lot. I rode down to Bethany Home and 83rd Avenue and hopped on the path that parallels the canal. Everything was good until I crossed 43rd Avenue at Osborne - I started seeing lots and lots of tagging and got feeling uncomfortable (no one knew I was riding my bike or the route I was taking). So I just turned around and came back. Total distance 16.4 miles. On the way home I stopped by Tolmachoff Farms and bought a dozen corn-on-the-cobs. I can't wait for dinner tonight to eat some. It was a little hard riding the 2 3/4 miles home with the corn in a bag. But I did it.

Yesterday I did a favor for my RS Secretary. We watched Charlie their Chihuahua. He was a skinny nervous dog. But before long he quit shaking and shivering and liked us to pet him. He even played with some of his toys. Don't worry Billie. He brought his own toys and didn't use any of yours. Want to know a secret about Charlie? He is bald on his legs, belly, chest, and underside of his neck and chin. CRAZY!! We enjoyed having him for the day. We'd do it again too, if asked. Right Doug? Right? Oh well, maybe not.

This morning I was at the kitchen sink and saw something at the hummingbird feeder. No not BOO my albino hummingbird. It has been more than a year since I saw him. But there was a Baltimore Oriole sitting on one of the feeders. Quick! I needed to grab the camera. But by the time I got back all I saw was a blur of black and yellow. Well I left the camera there, on the window sill, and kept checking back. When I got distracted that dang bird came back. By the time I saw it there it was already leaving. I'm just not quite quick enough. I sure hope to get my own picture. But to spice up this post I got a picture from online.

On the way to church yesterday I found a very long hair that had fallen out of my head. That is not so unusual. But this was a very long silver hair. Just because I was curious I measured it while I was in the library. I'm taking guesses from anyone who wants to make a guess on how long the hair was. Just make a comment to make your guess.

Remember when I told you about the bike ride that made my left pinky and part of the ring finger numb? Well that very slowly but surely was wearing off. And yesterday I thought my fingers felt pretty normal. So then what extremely dumb thing did I do? I did a 16.4 mile ride today and they are numb again. The crazy thing is - my right pinky and part of my ring finger are also numb this time. What can I say? At least I'm evened up now.

Lawn Mower

2011-06-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

The old lawn mower has served us well. But it died. We got this new red lawn mower as a replacement. It came in a box from Sears. Doug went to the store and bought it. I took it out of the box and assembled it. Doug took care of filling the oil and gas. Then this morning came the big test. I went out, grabbed the pull cord, and in one pull the engine started. What a sweet sweet sound. I didn't even have to work up a sweat with repeated pulls. One pull - that was it. After it started I proceeded to mow the back grass. It worked like a charm!

Solar Oven Bread

2011-06-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I bought a solar oven through Craigslist. They had several listed for sale for less than they sell for online. It turns out that they bought a big batch of ovens in order to get a reduced price. They had a few extras and would sell them for the exact price they bought them for. That was about 30 dollars cheaper than online. So I jumped for one. And yesterday I finally tried to make some Solar Oven Bread.

I got out my wheat.

Ground it into flour.

Stirred and kneaded the dough. Formed it into the black pan that came with the oven. I let the dough rise in the warm sun coming through my window.

Before long it was ready to put into the oven. I had placed the oven outside earlier to get it "warmed up" and ready to go.

When the oven was going it was between 200 and 250 degrees inside. The instructions said to cook the bread for 45 minutes to an hour. I left it for an hour.

When I brought the bread in and took it out of the pan it looked like a cake and wasn't browned like a loaf I would cook in my oven.

But it cut like real bread.

And it tasted like real bread too - REAL GOOD BREAD!!

I must say the bread was a success! I baked 2 "loaves" and they both came out great! The missionaries were at dinner and seemed to like the bread as well. This morning I took some to my tennis ladies and they were all very impressed! So the Solar Oven Bread experiment was an overwhelming success. YES!!

Return from Scout Camp

2011-06-21T06:00:00.001-07:00

I sent Doug to Scout Camp on Monday.

On Saturday this is who I saw

Return From Scout Camp.

WOW!!

Is this the same guy?

Monkeying Around

2011-06-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

A little while ago my Bester (aka. Kristina) asked me to secure some critical seams in her very favorite monkey suit so she could loan it out to her ward for Girls Camp. So I did that. She also mentioned that I could play around with the costume while it was in my possession. So I did that too.

Here are the results of my Monkeying Around.

All Alone

2011-06-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

Doug is at Scout Camp all week long.

This morning Scott left - he will be gone for 2 days.

So I am all alone.

100,000

2011-06-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

The video below documents our 2006 Nissan Frontier turning over 100,000 miles. What a milestone. And to think we have accumulated those miles in just 5 years. Sheesh! But it the truck has been well used. And we have taken pretty good care of it too. So do you wish the truck a Happy Birthday, or a Happy Trails? Not sure - but this I know - we hope it has at least another 100,000 miles in it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2011-06-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been thinking that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Yes, it is true. Even though we are here in the desert - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! How nice.

Want to know why it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas?

That is because we have tomatoes ripening on our plants outside. Everytime I go out to water the plants I think to myself: "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" Here are a few photos. Let me know if you agree with my assessment.

Ideas

2011-06-02T07:32:00.001-07:00

To all my loyal readers:

Please put your thinking caps on and give me a few minutes of your undivided effort. I would like any and all ideas you have for a very short audition video for The Amazing Race. Scott and I have talked for a very long time about how we would run the race and batted around the idea of auditioning. Well that talk has stopped and now we have just a few short weeks to put together a 1-2 minute audition video.

We encourage all ideas no matter how "way out" they may be. If we don't directly use anyones idea - we may use it to help us with some massive brain storming to finalize an idea.

A few things:

1. We want a tag line - something to grab attention and use for the elements we put in the video. (Brains and Brawn, AZ Tag Team, something soccerish?)

2. We should put in some dialog. (Maybe about a game situation and how brutal we would be.)

3. Some point of conflict & resolution. (Help us out here.)

4. A team name (might be the same as our tag line). Do we need a unique look (but not matching outfits, I hear that is a killer for an audition)?

5. Any filming suggestions.

Remember your ideas need to be short, sweet, unique, and able to grab attention FAST! Rob your expertice for a short video would be very very helpful. Give us some of your vast knowledge, please. Isaac - you have a creative mind. We loved your frozen milk commercial. But only spend your energy and mind power generating ideas for us when you are otherwise mindlessly engaged in toilet scrubbing, floor polishing, or carpet cleaning! No study/class time should be used toward this cause.

We need your ideas and quick. Help!

***All idea submissions become the sole property of - ME. They can be changed, altered, and mutilated for my purposes. If we get picked and/or win you might receive compensation and or credit for your contributions - but don't count on it!

Snakes

2011-06-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

We ran into two of these critters on the first day. Both of them were fairly small. The first one was a small rattlesnake. It was a little bigger around than a pencil (maybe as thick as a cigar) - and the length was undertermined. It was coiled up against the side of the canyon wall. We didn't want to stretch him out for fear of being struck by those teeny tiny fangs. You all know that being bit by a baby rattlesnake is the worst. They haven't yet figured out how to regulate their venom so they just let it all go. That would have been disastrous in our isolated location.

This was the second snake we came across. It was moving and we video taped the snake action. We weren't sure what kind of snake he was but some guy in our group said that you can tell a snake is not venomous if it does not have any purple on it. WHAT? I've never heard that. I've never seen a rattlesnake with purple on it. The coral snake is red, yellow, and black - right? And pythons, black mambas, etc. I'm not sure he knows what he's talking about - but we just nodded our heads and acted better informed. (You can really hear the wind blowing on the video - It gets going when blowing through the narrow canyon!)

More short posts will follow. We are putting together another comic book for your enjoyment. Just don't count on it coming anytime soon.

Packing the Pack

2011-05-25T08:39:00.001-07:00

Today I am Packing the Pack.

It will be my lifeline for 3 days while we are hiking the Paria Canyon.

Here is Doug with his pack packed.

My pack weighs in at 22# and Doug's at 28#.

Hike time probably closer to 25# and 31#.

Seeing RED!

2011-05-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

The title may mislead you about the topic of my post.

But when I go out to water the garden these days

I am not only seeing GREEN but

I am also seeing RED.

Here is the proof:

BTW - can anyone tell me what is wrong with this picture of the bean plants in our garden?

Garden Update

2011-05-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

A quick update on the garden.

The tomato plants are looking pretty good. We have 8 plants. One in particular is growing like crazy. And a different one is barely hanging in there. One looks healthy but has been stingy about flowering and starting to grow fruit. But it finally is starting to cooperate. I've counted at least 30 fruits growing. They are all sizes. We have 10 that are bigger than golf balls and a couple of those are even bigger than that. Don't have any turning red yet but I have hope that we will get some eventually.

The beans in the garden are starting to look good. The first planting only produced maybe 6 plants. Those 6 are just now starting to grow a new level of leaves beyond the first 2 starter leaves. So I re-planted in the bare spots. Now most of those have come up and are looking good. But I had a few more beans and planted those in the remaining spots where plants hadn't sprouted. So hopefully we can produced enough beans to cook and eat and enjoy.

The pepper plants have been really slow. It took forever for one to sprout. It took so long I planted seeds again. And now the first and second batch of seeds have both sprouted. I guess I'll have to thin out the duplicates. I just can't bear to do it yet.

This spring/summer garden has been weird. It has been cool (for here - only turned the A/C on maybe twice or three times for an afternoon) and just when it seems to get warm/hot with a long hot summer ahead - well then another weather front comes in and cools things off. So the garden doesn't know what is going on. But we'll hope to have some fruits to enjoy.

And as a side note to Shanna - my plant advisor - I topped off the tall plant on my front porch after getting your advice. And it has produced some nice new leaves up near the top of the remaining stem. It looks SOOOO MUCH BETTER!!! Thanks!

Mechanic

2011-05-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

I had some glitches with Blogspot the last 2 days. I couldn't access my account. But I had typed up a nice post and saved it to my drafts recently. I returned to it today only to find that it hadn't saved at all! Dang! Now I have to start over.

Dad was a machinist in the Navy. What he learned there carried him through many challenges in this life. He could figure out why things weren't working and fix them. He could schluge things together that were broken. He was a very handy man. Anyway, maybe I take after him in that way because in the past few days I sort of feel like a mechanic.

First - someone jammed and burned up our paper shredder. Someone jammed a bunch of folded papers in the shredder. The person clearly disregarded the caution on how many papers the shredder could handle. I won't name the guilty party - but if I was writing a poem about the incident I would have lots of words to rhyme with his name (hot, not, shot, dot, lot, you get the picture). I do give him credit for telling me that he jammed the shredder and it coughed, and chugged, and started smelling like smoke when he did it. So the other day I got my tools and took a look at the shredder. I found the screws and removed the top of the shredder so I could have access to the jammed papers. With some needle nose pliers I carefully started removing the bits and chunks of paper. I worked from the top of the shredder and the bottom of the shredder and eventually got all the paper out. I screwed the top back on, plugged it in, turned the switch on - and voila - the green light turned on. So I found a small dainty scrap of paper and put it in. The shredder ate it up. Yes! I used my mechanic skills and fixed the shredder.

Again - a problem. The grass was getting long and Doug wanted to mow the lawn. He tried to start the mower with no success. He pulled and tugged and pulled some more but nothing. The mower refused to cooperate. We both talked about how old the mower was. We also talked about the cost of having it repaired. I mean if it costs $100 to fix it (which it would - probably more) then I would probably be worth it to get a new one for just a little more. But Doug got out his laptop and began searching some ways to trouble-shoot the mower problems. Air filter clogged? Spark plug sparking? Etc. Etc. Anyway the day slipped away with no solution and the grass just kept growing longer. So on Thursday I went out and tended to my garden and saw the mower. I decided to give it a try. I checked the air filter. I peeked in the gas tank. I primed the motor. Then I talked kindly to the aging mower and gave it a few pulls. About 6 pulls was all it took when the motor roared into action. A little rough at first but after a minute the engine smoothed out and sounded just right. I fixed the lawn mower too. I must be a mechanic.

Needless to say, I immediately changed into my lawn mowing clothes and got the lawns cut while I knew I could get the mower started again. During that time I began to wonder if Doug really couldn't start the mower or if he just didn't start the mower. Maybe he just didn't want to cut the grass himself. Maybe he was just dragging his feet so he wouldn't have to cut the grass. Man, did I fall for one of his tricks? I don't think he would do that - but it does make you think.

I don't think I'll become a full-time mechanic. But I have the knack. Maybe I can pick up a side job now and then. Only time will tell.

P.S. Can I figure out the money I "saved" and go on a spending spree? Just thought I'd ask what you all think.

69.1

2011-05-11T07:25:00.001-07:00

We have been blessed with another break in the weather. We know it should be warm (read hot) in Phoenix when we are halfway through May. But we have not hit 100 so far this year. It starts getting warm, on the verge of hot, and just when we think we are going to stay hot until the fall we get a change in weather. Usually it gets windy and the temperatures drop and everyone around here just smiles and breathes deeply and enjoys it for all it is worth.

We are doing that again. We haven't hit the 90's for at least 3 days now. I don't even think we hit 80 yesterday. And the nights - heavenly. We have left the fans on in the evenings and have been able to chill - that is right - chill our house completely. Take a look:

This morning it was 69.1 - inside! Ignore the 105.3 reading for the outside temperature - when the sun comes up and hits directly on the sensor it gets a little wacky and wimpy and we know that reading is way off. But you can count on the 69.1 reading to be accurate. I actually pulled a little blanket on my legs as I was doing my computer work this morning. Ahhhhh. So nice to be cool.

But all good things must end and I'm afraid the heat is coming to stay.

Hope we don't all melt away!

Mothers Day

2011-05-09T09:41:00.001-07:00

I had a wonderful Mothers Day! It started with a delicious omlette with toast and a scrumptious and beautiful strawberry hand dipped in dark chocolate. The breakfast was cooked by Doug. The strawberry a gift from my mom. Thanks to both for a great start for me on Mothers Day.

I got 3 video calls from all the kids who are living away from home. Calvin was especially generous in perfoming for us. Sadie and Zachary were fun to talk to as well. Sadie nearly let us down when she didn't want to sing us a song. She had very weakly started the ABC song and gave out after "D". But as we were saying our goodbyes we heard her start the song again and soon we could hear it very well and she was singing it with gusto. Thanks Sadie, for the song. And thanks to you all for a wonderful evening filled with video chats! Loved it!

Doug also cooked up a great dinner. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, with delicious salad. Only glitch there was the raw zucchini he peeled and sliced into the salad. I didn't even try it - but he thought it was a cucumber. Oh well - still loved the dinner!

Now to my gifts -

Did I mention the strawberries from mom? They tasted so good! Thanks Mom.

I got a letter mid-week but didn't look at the contents until Mothers Day. It was some original artwork from Calvin. Thanks to Calvin and his parents for that.

Isaac also gave me an original composition. Wow! Thanks!

Scott gave me some Accoutrements - girlie ones. To further clarify what he gave me they are Stylish Self-adhesive Mustaches for Girls! Wow! I never even knew they had those. I never even knew I wanted them! And it turns out that there is a different one for every day of the week. Sunday - the Bollywood, Monday - the Heroine, Tuesday - the Many Missus, Wednesday - the Frida, Thursday - the Lip Liner (pictured), Friday - the Cowgirl (pictured) , and Saturday - the Grandma (pictured and best fit). So thanks Scott. Plus he got me a gift card for Kohl's.

I just got a bike and that serves as my Mothers Day gift. I've had it out for a couple rides already. We did 15 miles together in town the same day that I did 11 myself. One left-over malady from that day is a half numb left pinky and ring finger. I don't know if that will ever go away. But I'll let you know if it does. We also went to the rim last Thursday and took a 16 mile ride - checking out the route for the boys during summer scout camp. A mini comic book is being published about the ride last week. Doug also made another famous homemade card. He's quite good at it and I always appreciate the efforts he makes to make me feel special and appreciated.

**Today I received a cute card from the Kevan Family. A really cute card about apps - wink wink, nudge nudge, hint hint. Anyway they sent me my very own Abraham Lincoln with which to buy my favorite chocolate almond ice cream at 31 Flavors. I hope they have it. Thanks! I needed that!

Then my Bester delivered this nice plaque to me also. Wow is she nice! She must like me. Thanks to her for thinking about me. It is nice to have a Bester. In case you don't know, Kristina is my Bester. I think you have all met her. Thanks Bester - you really are the best!

I hope I haven't forgotten anything. Thanks to all for making yesterday a very wonderful Mothers Day for me.

20

2011-05-04T15:13:00.001-07:00

I counted 20 (or more) tomatoes growing in our garden. My mouth already waters in anticipation of the delicious vine ripened tomatoes that we will harvest and eat. That will only be possible if we can keep them from burning up in our desert sun AND keep the dang birds from ruining them before they are ripe enough.

Wish us luck!

Plants

2011-05-03T06:03:00.001-07:00

I have at least 2 pepper plants trying to grow in my garden. I'd like 2 more. Tomato plants are going strong too. Bean plants - 2nd try - nothing yet.

Zachary

2011-04-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

Just so you know - Zachary is in the hospital in Portland. He was getting sick and started wheezing. Lindsey took him to urgent care and they checked his oxygen level and sent them right to the Emergency Room. Hopefully they will get him better in time to catch their flight home on Sunday. I'm sure your prayers for him would be appreciated.

We don't want him looking like this:

We want him looking like this!

Seeds

2011-04-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I bought some seeds for our garden - beans and peppers. I planted them and only 5 plants have sprung from the earth. I followed the directions even soaking the beans to encourage timely sprouting. But nothing. So last night I bought more seeds. This morning I will plant them. Wish me luck!

Three Strikes

2011-04-28T05:28:00.001-07:00

I ran a quick errand to Target on Tuesday. Target is like the closest store to our house. Anyway, I had my list and needed just a couple of things. I was watching Billie for Mom but I figured she'd be fine while I went on this quick errand. But before long I would realize that I was in a sort of "virtual softball game" and would be fighting for my life while at home plate trying to get a hit.

If you remember Tuesday was a very windy day! I parked and gathered my purse and keys and opened the door. As fate would have it just as I opened the door and swung my legs to get out a huge - and I mean huge - blast of air blew in just the precise angle so as to blow the door right out of my grip and crash into the car next door to me. It was a silver sporty type car - RATS! I looked immediately at the damage. There was a sort of white scrub mark that morphed into a pink and then a slight red mark at the end of the collision site. RATS and DOUBLE DARN!! But there was not actual body damage. Luckily our truck had a sort of clear sticker on the edge of the door that sort of acted to protect it from just this sort of mishap. A quick buff would surely fix the problem. So I waited for a few minutes hoping that the owner would appear and just smile and shrug and I'd be off the hook. But no one approached. So I wrote a note and a short explanation and my home phone number. I said to call so we could work out the situation. But before I left my vehicle I took a few pictures. Just wanted to document the damages on the spot. Judge Judy would be proud. I folded the note and forced it into a slightly cracked window. That would be Strike One!

I parked and walked in to encounter my second problem. They were totally changing the layout of Target. I could find things before with precision. Today I had to wander and search. That also added some time to my trip. Strike Two! I needed to be quick - Billie was home alone. But I worked hard and eventually found what I needed and headed to the car. I worried that a huge body-builder guy on steroids and angry would be out there just waiting to pound me. But I found my truck and the owner of the car next to me had already left. No note left for me. No intentional scratches or dents left for retribution. I heaved a huge sigh of relief and headed for home.

When I got the the red light that would let me out onto Northern I was the first and only car there. But the truck began to run really rough. I put it into neutral to rev up the engine but nothing happened. It just eventually died. RATS! RATS! RATS! I tried to start it over and over again - it always started but didn't seem to get any gas when I stepped on the gas pedal. Strike Three! I called Doug - he started for home. The only good thing about this whole incident is that we put Roadside Assistance on our insurance for the truck. So I called and they arranged for a tow. Eventually we got towed to the repair shop. Some electronic sensor was bad and needed to be replaced. Any guesses on price? $600. (That's just the part too - no labor) WHAT?! Well that was quite an expensive trip to Target.

So just like old times - Three Strikes and I was out.

P.S. Funny things happen when you are waiting for a tow truck. I put on the emergency flashers and raised the hood on the truck. I left the truck so people wouldn't feel it necessary to shake their fists and swear at me. But even with those very visual signs of distress it was amazing at how many people pulled right up to the back and waited for it to get going. Most people eventually figured it out. But a few pulled right up there and honked and got all worked up. I suppose they felt a little foolish when they realized the truck was indeed advertising it's broken condition and there was not a soul around it to get mad at. That put a smile on my face.

South Mountain Hike

2011-04-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

April 16th we hiked in South Mountain Park. After studying the maps I created a 10 mile loop. The loop included these trails: Mormon Trail, Mormon Loop Trail, Javelina Canyon Trail, Beverly Canyon Trail, Pima Wash Trail, National Trail, and back to Mormon Trail.

We have hiked many of the valley mountain trails – this being one of the last to tackle. One of the main draws for this trail was to see and experience “Fat Man’s Pass”. And a bonus was seeing Hidden Valley and Natural Tunnel as well on the same loop to see Fat Man’s Pass. These mountains had their own unique look and personality. There were so many trails! We took a map and had confidence that we would be able to find our way. As we began hiking we saw so many trail signs we knew that, indeed, we would not get lost!

Mushroom anyone?

We started on the hike at 6:15 am. The Mormon Trail was a good one to get our hearts really pumping. We transitioned without a hitch to the Mormon Loop Trail. But when we should have transitioned to the Javelina Canyon Trail things weren’t right. We ended up on a long, flat, cleared “road”. It definitely did not look like a “canyon” trail. But no signs so we continued. With each step we knew things weren’t right but this road was loaded with “recreational hikers” so we knew we wouldn’t get lost and could definitely find our way back. We now know we were on a handicapped access trail. But eventually we saw a sign for Beverly Canyon Trail.

We turned onto it and immediately felt more comfortable and knew we were on the right path. But now we would have to reverse our route in order to get to the trail we had missed and still get our 10 miles in. No problem – with my map it was a snap.

We really enjoyed the morning. We took some pictures along the way.

Hidden Valley

Natural Tunnel

Fat Man’s Pass

Doug really enjoyed part of Beverly Canyon Trail where we followed some power lines. Made him feel at home.

On top of Old Smokyyy . . . . all covered with . . . . . meeee!

Nice view.

When we got back to the point where we hadn't found Javelina Canyon Trail we looked around and see that we did not miss a sign. There was no sign. But now we know exactly where we want to go next time. Right at that point we also found some cool petroglyphs.

And as you can all tell - by virtue of the fact that I am now at home and writing this post, we did indeed find our way out of the South Mountain Park/Preserve. One disturbing thing we noticed during our hike - every sign with the word "mormon" on it was defaced. People would scratch out the second "m" and therefore it would read "moron". Not a pretty picture. But at one point when we were nearly finished hiking we found this sign in pristine condition and took advantage of it.

Growing

2011-04-26T06:12:00.001-07:00

Upon close inspection last night I found 10 tomatoes growing on our plants and 3 bean sprouts just barely poking up out of the ground. I hope this is a good sign for a very successful garden this season!

Dang Computer!

2011-04-25T05:33:00.000-07:00

Dang computer! I had a nice entry about our South Mountain hike all ready to publish. I was editing some of the weird spacing I've been getting lately. I can't figure that spacing issue out. Anyway, one click and I lost it all. I don't feel like doing it again just yet. I hope I can get that urge to blog the event back again. It was a nice hike.

Dang computer! Oh well. For now - this will have to do.

Old Boots - 2

2011-04-19T18:19:00.001-07:00

OK.

I finally did it.

I threw out my Old Boots.

They deserved a much better ending -

but in actuality they died a slow and lingering death.

I should have put them out of their misery much sooner.

The Old Boots are gone.

Please join me in a moment of silence in their behalf.

Thank you!

Old Boots

2011-04-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

As most of you know I have spent many years doing hikes. I have used this one pair of boots for most of my hikes. They have become my Old Boots.
As the Stake Hike Leader for the 4th and 5th year girls I have lead many hikes: I have lead at least 5 Havasupai hikes (20 miles round trip), a couple hikes at Picacho Peak (7 miles round trip), and probably 7 or 8 hikes to Fossil Springs (7 miles round trip)- not to mention all the hikes while up at Girls Camp. And the actual planned hikes are usually the least of the mileage logged on your boots (feet).
There is usually a period of at least 5 - 6 weeks of training hikes that are done in preparation for the hike. Those were usually treks up local hiking trails varying in length from 3 - 4 miles round trip. Some of those hikes were: Shaw Butte, North Mountain, Squaw Peak (more recently named Piestewa Peak), and the Waterfall Trail in the White Tanks. These are just the hikes related to my calling as the hike leader.
I have in recent years also done some hiking for fun. I hiked Paria Canyon 2 years ago. Shortly after that I did a Grand Canyon hike - destination Thunder River. So I did many pre-hikes to get ready for those as well. And in the recent weeks Doug and I are preparing for a Paria Hike at the end of May. So we are doing more pre-hikes.
Anyway - my Old Boots have been with me on many of those hikes. After our recent 10 mile hike on Trail 100 in the rain we sat by our vehicles waiting for a couple more scouts to finish the hike. I looked down and saw my Old Boots were in bad repair. And actually after a close inspection I feel very lucky that I didn't walk right out of my Old Boots. I think the rubber is brittle and the glue has given up the ghost or something because there are soles flapping and rubber peeling and split everywhere I look! I used some Shoe Goo a couple of years ago to close some gaps - worked really well by the way. But I don't think there is much hope in using a little Shoe Goo to extend the life of my Old Boots. They have lived their life seeing a lot of action with me. Given all that - I am still having a terrible time throwing away my Old Boots.

APS MVP

2011-04-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

Putting this in the blog so you can all see what a valuable worker Doug is.

He was recognized as the APS MVP back in 2008.

I just ran across the magazine and wanted you all to see it too.

BTW - isn't that a sweet personalized jersey?

Trail 100

2011-04-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

Our training hike for the Saturday April 9th was Trail 100 in the Phoenix Mountain Preserves. The scouts in the ward would be accompanying us. They are preparing for their 50-miler for their summer camp. So in total there were 6 boys and 3 adults (Doug and I included).

We wanted to hike the entire Trail 100 which would be 10 miles. However, trying to figure out the logistics of getting the group to the front end of the trail and shuttling a car/cars to the other end was too hard. We settled on doing about 5 miles one way and then turning around and returning to our cars. That turned out to work pretty well.

One obvious challenge was going to be the weather. The news had forecast a 90% chance of rain for that Saturday. And it did. The rain started Friday night and rained through most of the day on Saturday. But that did not discourage the boys at all. They had a great showing and for the most part they came prepared. We did have to insist that a couple of them put on a sweatshirt of ours - these desert kids just don't like bundling up too well. Despite the weather and meeting time (6:30 AM) all the boys who were expected came - and one leader as well.

Doug and I suspected that the boys would be dragging a bit and we might not get a very good workout. So I added a little weight to my pack AND strapped 2 pounds onto each ankle.

Group shot at the starting point. Sheesh! Some of those boys did not want to be in a picture.

We started at the North Mountain Visitors Center at about 7th Street and just south of Thunderbird. The trail took us southeast and we ended up at about 32nd Street and Northern for our turn around spot. The trail included 3 tunnels that took us under - 7th Street, Cave Creek Road, and the 51. As we suspected the older kids decided to slack off and go slow. One leader would stay back and sort of prod them to go faster. But the pace wasn't terribly slow - you could just tell they weren't giving it very much effort. But as ALWAYS happens, when you turn around and head for home those boys were jazzed and energized and stayed out front the whole way.

A nice picture of the group - minus me.

One of the boys started complaining about 3.5 miles into the hike. He wasn't feeling well, etc. etc. I've done enough youth hikes over the years to know that issue is always going to come up. I think I would have told him to tough it out. He was really doing very well. But he wanted to go back. Doing that would have required 1 leader and another boy as well to abandon ship and miss the rest of the hike. I mentioned that it would really be closer to go ahead and get to our turn around spot and call his dad to meet us there. That is what ended up happening and our timing was what you might call "perfection". We arrived at the Dreamy Draw about 5 minutes before the parent arrived. That gave the boys time to use the bathroom there and to just take it easy before heading back.

Here we are at the half-way point. Notice the kid in the blue poncho? He's smiling like it is his birthday or something? He's the one getting picked up. Does it look like he's sick or suffereing to you? Not so much. But then again he is smiling like that in all the pictures. Go back and check it out.

The hike back was uneventful. We all kept putting one foot in front of the other and eventually we made it back to the cars. The other leader seemed to be struggling a little bit with leg cramps or something. He kept stretching his legs out. I, myself, was feeling the extra weight on my ankles. I was getting a pretty good workout - FOR SURE. I would be feeling that workout for several days afterward. But I guess that is a good thing.

This is the only shot of me. I'm in the orange poncho.

One cool thing was on the way back we saw a geocache just off the trail. Someone had left it a mess! Probably some muggle who didn't know what it was. So we stopped and put all the stuff back into the can and camouflagued it a little better.

How was the Trail 100 hike? A real success. It rained/sprinkled for the entire hike. The temperature was probably right at 50 or so. The rain made things look really different - but it was beautiful! Next week's hike? Probably some trails at South Mountain. Anyone want to join us? Let me know.

Wheat Hearts

2011-04-13T05:33:00.000-07:00

Anyone out there remember eating Wheat Hearts? I have a lot of memories eating Wheat Hearts. When we visited Grandma and Grandpa Russell we were sure to see grandma cooking up a pan of Wheat Hearts on the stove - using the metal spooon worn down on one side from years and years of use. The steaming hot cereal would sit on the table waiting for us to partake. The carton of Half-and-Half was sitting on the table waiting to be poured onto the hot breakfast cereal. A little sugar (or a lot) added to the bowl and it became a delicious meal. So many memories of that cereal.

After we got married we got our own Wheat Hearts and had them on occasion. It was so much a part of our life that even when we moved to Arizona and couldn't find the cereal on the store shelves that we would buy some on our trips to Utah and bring it back with us. It became very disconcerting when we could no longer find Wheat Hearts in Utah either. Eventually we found that the product had been discontinued. What a loss.

Lately, we have been working on getting a true years storage of food. The plan we are following is that we plan on a breakfast and a lunch or dinner each day. You pick specific meals. We have been working on breakfasts. Doug eats Cream of Wheat every morning and has decided that he could eat that all year. I eat oatmeal so I decided to store some of that in addition to eating Cream of Wheat. Well, I don't know if you notice but Cream of Wheat or Malt-o-Meal is pretty expensive. Somewhere near $4 a box. That adds up when you are buying enough for 2 people for a full year. But I started getting it one box at a time.

I got smart pretty soon and decided to look on the intenet to see if we could buy the product by bulk somewhere. Sure enough I found several possibilities. During that search I found a family type business in Indiana that runs a flour mill and produces quite a few products. They have been doing this business for many many generations. Anyway I read a review where someone said that this particular breakfast cereal that they produce called Hearts of Wheat tastes exactly like the original Wheat Hearts and was very delicious. So when I looked into it - they did have a 50# bag and the price was really cheap! The shipping wasn't. But I kept looking back on and off and discovered that the shipping price had been slightly reduced. So I ordered it.

We got it later and it sat in the den until we purchased some #10 cans to store it in. The bag filled 12 cans with a quart jar left over. We cooked a batch of the Hearts of Wheat the next day and - voila - it looks and tastes just like I remember the Wheat Hearts did years ago! So I was smiling all day - we completed our years storage for breakfast AND enjoyed remembering and reliving all those childhood memories as well.

Superstition Mountains

2011-04-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

On April 2nd Doug and I went to the Superstition Mountains for a training hike. A friend came out and met up with us early in the morning. We did the Peralta Trail - which we have done several times before. Any of you kids remember the time we went out there for a little hike years ago? Anyway, it was a nice morning and we enjoyed the hike. A few things I want to mention:

1. Doug lost the rubber tip off of one of his hiking sticks during the first 20 minutes of the hike. Bummer!

2. I took my new mini travel tripod and we were able to take pictures with all of us together. Nice! It is my new backpacking equipment addition. As you can see in the picture it is made of lots of ball-like structures. Each joint in the tripod is bendable. That way it can be placed on uneven surfaces and you can bend it and form it until the camera is pointing where you want it and relatively level. It can even be bent around a branch or something like that. It is pretty sweet indeed! As you can see in the people pictures that I posted - 1st picture the dang rock got in the picture, 2nd picture dark people and beautiful Weaver's Needle, 3rd picture better people and decent scenery. We'll have to work on our picture compositions.

3. We were blessed to be able to see 2 beautiful red cardinals as we neared the end of the hike. Wow! What a sight! They were a little camera shy though so no pictures.

4. On the drive on the dirt road back to Mesa - we saw a snake on the side of the road. We had a quick glimpse and wanted to see more so we backed up. There it was in the perfect "S" shape as if slithering across the road. But it wasn't moving at all. Doug got his hiking stick out and gave it a poke or two. It was definitely dead. Funny thing is it didn't look damaged, injured, deformed, or splattered at all. Just looked like it was frozen in action. It was a young rattlesnake about 18" long and a short rattle. Too bad it didn't get to grow up.

That is all I want to say about our hike into the Superstition Mountains a few weekends ago.

Black Cat

2011-04-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

I was looking out my kitchen window this morning. I was watching my hummingbird feeders. Two of them were nearly empty. I made a mental note to myself to fill those feeders today. I didn't see any birds at the feeders. I watched for a while - still nothing. Odd. It has been rainy and windy and I would think the little hummingbirds would be eating like pigs. But no. Nothing.

I stretched forward, over the sink, to get a better look. What do you suppose I saw? Yep! A black cat! Dang! It was crouched or curled up just below the hummingbird feeders! I think it was looking for an easy snack before breakfast. No wonder there weren't any birds out at the feeders. They didn't want to become that black cat's breakfast! It was like the old Sylvester the cat and Tweety bird cartoons. Sheesh! I hope that black cat didn't already eat any of my friends. I sent Doug around to scare the black cat away.

It wasn't but a few seconds later that the birds began coming around to get their tummies full of delicious fresh nectar - made from scratch in my own kitchen. So I had to make another mental note this morning. Note to self: Watch out for neighborhood black cat who likes to make snacks of my hummingbird friends!

He did it.

2011-04-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

OK. The wait is over. I won't have to wonder anymore. He did it. He got me. And it only took a week to discover it.

Doug said the other day that he thought he knew my routine pretty well but agreed that he must not have it down as well as the thought he did. But today - finally - his April Fools joke was found. And it was pretty good too.

I ate a snacky lunch. I got a glass of milk I decided it was about time to take a multi-vitamin. When I opened the bottle of vitamins I had to smile. There it was. Doug's April Fools joke. He did it! He really did it. There inside the bottle of vitamins were a bunch of colorful gumballs. Right in the bottle. Mixed with the vitamins. Ha! Good one Doug.

So I'll give him credit for a good April Fools joke. Now I'm one good joke down. Do I have to wait until next year? Or not? Only time will tell what I decide about this issue.

Still Waiting

2011-04-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks for your comments so far. And Carolyn I will try the spacing trick next time. And just so you all know - I'm still waiting!

Waiting and Wondering

2011-04-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been waiting and wondering. You might want to know why I have been waiting and what I have been wondering about. I'll fill you in - but you have to promise to add your comment at the end of this post. Promise? OK. Now you can read the details. This April Fools Day was pretty lame. Doug and I tried to catch each other with the old, "You have sauce on your white shirt." and other stuff like that. Pretty LAME-OOO. But we were leaving early for the cannery and temple and I just didn't get any fooling done. However, I think I said something like, "I guess as long as a person puts together a joke on the 1st it would still count as an April Fools Day joke." Doug says he was laughing inside because he had already set up a joke. Here is the problem. It is April 5th and I haven't found his joke yet. It seems it must be a little obscure if I haven't found it in 5 days time. Right? Will it count as an April Fools Day joke? That is what you need to comment on. Will he get credit for it or not? I expect a bunch of comments/votes on this. And you can comment now while I am still waiting and wondering.

Trip to Tombstone

2011-03-31T08:23:00.000-07:00

Trip to Tombstone with Trudy - hey, that's four T's! Well when Trudy was in town Mom, Trudy, and I took a road trip (Becky you really missed out!). We landed in Tombstone, AZ. It was a busy enjoyable day. I plan on making a Comic Book about the trip. I am waiting to get pictures from Trudy that will enhance my publication, "Dad and Mom's Empty Nest Report 2011", Vol. 3 Iss. 1. Those of you who have subscriptions should expect this issue - hot off the presses - no sooner than May 2011. My editor and printer aren't too quick in completing their jobs. So don't hold your breath, just enjoy it when it comes.

Enjoy this teaser.

We saw one of these.

We saw lots of these.

A few of these.

I knew it - and a bazillion of these.

Garden

2011-03-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

News on our garden.

Our peas have just about dried up. Our total produce from the peas - about 1/2 cup. I was highly disappointed in their production level. But I saved them up and cooked them one night. They were OK - I like eating them raw better. Maybe peas will not be on our list for next year. I will probably pull them out soon and put in some beans. Maybe we'll get better production from beans. (Shanna - our plant expert - any suggestions from you for a good garden vegetable to try?) The spinach next to the peas is still producing and looks really good so we'll just let that continue to grow in that garden box for the time being. We also assembled another raised garden using cinder blocks. I don't know how they will work in the heat but we're going to give them a try. We put 8 tomato plants in that garden. So wish us luck on those. Can you tell who is taking the pictures of the garden? Clue is in the last picture seen below.

Serger

2011-03-27T20:18:00.001-07:00

I have secretly wanted a serger for a very long time. Even when my kids were very young I wanted one so I could have professional looking seams with finished edges. But that desire was never fulfilled. Just a year or so ago - JoAnn's had a serger on sale for $200 - half off the original price. I drove over and looked it over and almost got it (for an early birthday or Christmas gift). But when it came time to take it to the counter and plunk down that much money, I just couldn't make myself do it. I left empty handed.

I unexpectedly turned into the Goodwill store last week for no apparent reason. I had told a lady in the ward that I would keep my eyes opened for a used scout uniform. I figured I would stop and give a look for a uniform shirt. But that's not all I looked for. I always wander around the housewares - hoping to find an old large pressure cooker/canner in great condition. Right! That'll never happen. But anyway back I went to take a peek.

And my eyes spied some court stenographer machines. I opened the case and took a look at the machines. They were pretty cool. Then when I closed the case I saw something curious. It was a small sewing machine - pretty tiny really. But I inspected it and realized it was a Baby Lock serging machine. It had pieces of red thread in it - so as to show the proper threading sequences. The owners instruction manual was folded and tucked into the top handle (bonus). There was also a cord and foot pedal attached. Wow - complete package. The price was $14.99. There was a sign taped to the serger in a very visible area that said, "This item sold as-is - repairs may be necessary." Oh oh - that is not a good sign. But for $15 - I think I could at least clean it up and if it doesn't work and/or costs too much to repair I could probably get that much out of it on Craig's list. Maybe. It was worth the chance. So I bought the Baby Lock 3 - 426 serging machine. (Man that thing was heavy!!)

I brought my treasure home and parked it in the living room until I had time to work on it. I told Doug about my purchase and about the possibilities. He was probably thinking, "Oh boy - what was she thinking?!!"

Here is the machine - just as I bought it.

So eventually I opened the doors on the machine and figured out how to take some pieces off and began cleaning it. The machine itself wasn't too bad but there was a "plate" underneath that was coated with dried dark liquid. I noted that there were several holes on top for oiling the serger. So I figured the "plate" was probably coated with years of excess oil drippage. I wiped and scraped - scrubbed and polished. All of this was done through very small openings. I used q-tips for some of the reaching. It was hard work and took quite a while but at last I had it as clean as it was going to get.

I let it sit for another few days and finally got up my nerve to take it down the hall and thread the machine and plug it in and give it a try. But first I gave it a careful oiling. The serger is missing the elevated thread stand - it should hold 3 spools of thread. But I decided I could use the one on my hemstitching machine but just taking those spools off and putting on new ones for the serger. Bright idea! I carefully followed the threading instructions: through A, under B, past C, around D, etc. But there was a very tricky last two places. I couldn't see it well. I couldn't reach it well. I was getting frustrated. I got some stronger reading glasses and a head-mounted light to try again. When that didn't work at all I had a flash of inspiration. Somehow I thought about tying the new thread onto the red threads that were left threaded in the machine. I got excited - tried it. And Voila! Success!

Now I had everything ready for a trial run. I plugged in the serger and got some scrap material ready. OK - press on the foot pedal. Wait for it (was it going to be a huge bust?) But wait I heard a faint humming. Yes there was power and the machine was responding. The needle began to move up and down. No grinding, or popping. No needle rubbing or bunching of stitches. The machine was actually working. It was working really well. I even moved the material over to see if the material cutter worked as well. It did. So success! No - HUGE SUCCESS!!!

Here is a video of the first sewing on my new serger.

I just saved myself at least ( let me see . . . ummm $200 - $14.99 = $185.01) $185.01 dollars - and I didn't pay any additional taxes.

So in the end it looks like my impulse purchase of the serger

was as Martha Stewart says,

"It's a good thing."

Ski

2011-03-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

Doug and Scott went to ski one Saturday. It was a class activity for Doug's Young Men - one guy came. So here are a couple pictures. And Scott didn't ski - he did snowboarding.

I hope I never do it again

2011-03-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate it when you get a delicious ice creamy snack out of your chest freezer at night and then forget to close the lid of the freezer and leave it opened until the next morning? Anyone ever done that? Didn't think so. I hope I never do it again.

Green

2011-03-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what breakfast should look like on Saint Patrick's Day?

Well this is how it looked at our house yesterday.

Doug suffering from his first pinch of the day - not wearin' any of the green!

Green Eggs with peppers, and onions.

Add a bunch of tomatoes for color - and flavor!

Plated up with cheese - please.

Hungry, happy, and pinch forgotten -
Doug digs in to the green eggs, toast, and bacon too.
(Hope some eggs stick in his teeth because he still didn't wear any green!)

Peas in a Pod

2011-03-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered where the sayings including the phrase - "two peas in a pod" came from? (There are several different ones.)

Well this picture illustrates why that saying is used and is so completely descriptive of the intent of the sayings.

I'd say that pea pod is the bestest pea pod ever!

Bedroom Window

2011-03-10T06:24:00.001-08:00

In our new house the Master Bedroom is in the back of the house. After living here a little while I discovered a few things about this arrangement.

1. Our large bedroom window lets in some heat in the summer and cool in the winter.

2. The noises from 83rd Avenue (just behind our back wall) get through the window.

3. We also have a police/fire station combo right up the street. They love blasting their sirens at all hours of the day and night.

4. Lots of light comes in the window even at night.

5. Because of the above mentioned things I knew the windows would be an issue.

Here is what happened.

1. When we moved in it was rushed. As soon as we moved in - Doug had a trip back east and was gone for a few days. He left me here alone in a big new house, unpacked, a new neighborhood, and with bare windows through the entire house. Nothing on them at all. I slept alone in the big new house with the very large bare bedroom window one night and didn't like it at all. So the next day I taped up a sheet to cover that window.

2. Soon we ordered the window shades and they were installed. That helped with a lot - privacy, heat transfer, light, noise, etc. But the window is so large (3 big panes) that the shades had to be made in 3 sections as well. And as luck would have it the spacing of those sections was unfortunate. One of the small gaps between the sections was lined up with precision so that the street light outside the house would shed one sliver of light through. Where did that sliver of light land? Right on my pillow! So every night since then I have had to place my head with care so as not to get that sliver of light directly in my eyes. It has been a battle at times but I have managed.

3. The shades we put up do not block the light - but sort of diffuse it. So our bedroom, even at night, had a soft glow to it. As the sun rises earlier and earlier our slumber ends earlier and earlier. We moved in nearly 2 years ago - so we have spent 2 summers dealing with the bright bedroom.

I am terrible at decorating and chosing colors and all that. So I dread making a decision like that. But the "JoAnn's Sale flyer" got me going. I got a great deal on some material that I thought would look good against the brown venitian plaster walls. So I bought a bunch of it. I also bought a curtain rod to hang it on. I brought the material home and just draped some over the bar and decided the window still let too much light through. So I waited for another "JoAnn's Sale flyer". And finally it came. I bought some lining for the curtains. That would solve the problem.

I spent several days measuring, cutting, hand basting the lining to the material, pinning in hems, etc. I finally used the sewing machine and got them sewed permanently. I removed all the basting and was ready to hang.

Trying to put the curtains on the rod and get the rod up on the supports was a trial. And as soon as I did that I could see that the anchors that came with the rod were NOT going to support the curtains. Luckily Doug has a whole collection of that kind of thing and we found some bigger anchors and replaced the originals. Finally, and at long last I got the curtains up.

Voila! They are great! I may need to do something to accent them but I'll live with what I have for a while and figure something out.

The wonderful part is that had I directly lined up the curtains with the shades - the gaps in both would be in the exact same place and therefore that bothersome sliver of light would still have been plaguing me. But when I put up the supports for the rods I compensated for that and just barely offset them and now there are no more slivers of light coming through the curtains - at all. It is just a miracle that I thought about that and that my idea worked. Sometimes we just get lucky I guess. And we have been enjoying some nice dark and less noisy slumbers ever since!

A "Find" and A "Bonus"

2011-03-09T05:12:00.000-08:00

I got to check something off our household fix-up "to-do" list. As you stand and look at the lamp it looks great! But when you sit at the table the bare bulb is visible. It doesn't really bother us but it does give the appearance of an unfinished project. So I carefully measured the opening of our lovely hanging stained glass lamp - just over 4 inches. Then I put the tape measure in the car as I left for exercises as a reminder to make a stop on the way home at the nearby Goodwill.

I pass the Goodwill store quite often - so I figure if I stop by often enough I should be able to find a white globe that will screw in and hide the sight of the bare lightbulb. So that day I made my first stop and guess what?

Yup. There it was. A globe just sitting on the shelf, all lonely and pathetic. Even upon closer inspection I could see it was perfect, no chips, no cracks, no flaws at all. I thought it couldn't be this easy. I couldn't find the perfect thing I was looking for on my first trip to look for one. Not a chance.

I calmly walked back out to the car to get the tape measure. My mind said, "Yes that globe is the perfect size and in perfect condition and it will serve you well over the years." But sometimes aren't our eyes bigger than our stomach? Isaac usually had that happen when we went out to eat. You know - order the biggest meal and then struggle to eat it all? I was pretty sure about this - but a quick measure would confirm it. And as I walked out to the car I wondered if the globe would be on the shelf when I returned. Would someone else be looking for that exact item and buy it during my absence? Did someone see me inspecting it and in their own twisted way buy it just to deny me having it? So I hurried my steps. I retrieved the measuring tape and walked with gusto back to the Goodwill store.

I walked straight back to the shelf where I had left the globe. Would my "find" still be there? Yes! Yes, there it was - sitting all lonely and hopeful. I picked it up to measure. What was that? Four inches. Right, four inches! It would be a perfect fit. The price tag? $1.99. I'll take it! And I did too.

As I was walking out I veered over to the men's pants. Doug needed a pair of light weight hiking pants for our 3 day backpacking hike to the Paria Canyon in May. His heavy convas army pants would not do. So I started looking and within 4 pairs of pants I found some. Right size. Right material. Good pockets (always a must for guys and hiking/camping). And they were actual hiking pants with the legs that zip off into shorts! Wow! Bonus! I felt like I hit the jackpot. Two needed items and two finds!

So I hurriedly paid and brought the items home. I cleaned off the globe and inserted it into the lamp - perfect fit! What a find!

Later when I had Doug try on the pants - perfect fit! What a bonus! What a day!

Happiness

2011-03-08T17:39:00.001-08:00

Happiness is seeing 4 hummingbirds eating lustily from my feeders -

together -

at the same time -

not dive bombing each other.

It made me smile.

Spinach

2011-03-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

Our square foot garden experiment has mixed reviews. We tried a winter garden which under normal weather conditions should have been successful. However, we had 2 terrible cold spells - and I mean cold! All the bushes got frozen our hose froze and we took precautions to protect our water pipes - we hope the bushes and tree will revive and survive. Only time will tell.

We managed to keep the garden plants alive by covering them and putting a work light underneath to generate a little warmth. But the plants never really thrived. But finally and at long last we are getting a little production.

When Shanna posted about her orzo and spinach salad I decided to try it out. I went out to my garden and snipped some baby spinach leaves for the salad. The salad was yummy! And it even tasted better knowing the spinach had only been snipped a few hours before.

The pea plants look pretty pitiful right now but they are producing "dozens" of pods - make that "a dozen" pods. So I have harvested a few of those also. I take the peas out of the pods and freeze them. Once I get enough - I'll cook them up and hope for the best. I have about 1/4 cup right now so it looks like we'll be waiting for a very long time OR we will be satisfied with one spoonful of peas each. Either way we'll enjoy them completely.

On the Phoenix planting schedule for tomatoes - we are already way too late for them. But I am still hoping that I can get some plants and give it a try. I'll let you know if/when that happens.

So I went out today and snipped some more spinach and will cook it up for dinner.

Having finished eating dinner I can report that the spinach was super delicious! Wow!

That is all I have to say about spinach right now.

White Elephant Gift Exchange

2011-02-25T04:41:00.000-08:00

I have been terrible about blogging - but today I thought I should post. I reviewed my photos and realized I had never posted about our annual DeWitt/Selin/Hansen White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Let's see Evan and his family were missing and Jill' husband was missing too. I think everyone else was here. Wait - Jason was also missing. Plus Isaac had his girlfriend Kristina here with us for the event.

It all started at a nearby park where the kids had a wonderful playground and the adults played some sand volleyball. When we worked up an appetite we came to the house and ate. But the main event was the White Elephant Gift Exchange. The gift exchange is always an adventure and this year that proved true - and near the end a little "PG"ish.

Sadie got a finger table bowling game - she was thrilled with it. And thanks to the group for not stealing it from her and causing a tear filled meltdown.

Shannon looked quite good in the zebra striped outfit. She's ready for her first safari.

Well maybe she doesn't have to go on a safari after all. An actual elephant appeared. I can't remember who got this gift - but it was left at our house. If I ever do remember - they'll be getting paid back sometime when they least suspect it.

I got this wonderful golf ensemble - including a hat full of golf balls. But this is as close as I'll ever get to a golf course. Pretty nice fit though.

And Jeff was the winner of the gift that got the most attention (and my determination that this event was "PG"ish). He got a Richard Simmons exercise video and exercise outfit. Jeff started to try it on but in mixed company he didn't try too hard - thanks Jeff!

But then Allan was willing. He left the room and came back with these blue shimmery shorts on and Becky gave him the equally styling pink shirt to finish off the outfit.

Here is the finished product. (Who would exercise in this stuff?) Not me. NEVER!

The best part was capturing Isaac and Kristina's reaction to Allan's "fashion show". YIKES! Isaac was ready - he knew what was coming. But Kristina - she looks a little shocked in the picture. I wouldn't have blamed Kristina if she went home that night and we never saw her again.

That pretty much captures the highlights of the

2010 White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Rocket Stove

2011-02-09T04:12:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I dragged dad to an optional lecture-type meeting about a food storage method - by a Sister Wendy DeWitt (any relation here Becky?). Anyway, we forged ahead with making the primary cooking appliance mentioned - a Rocket Stove. We emptied an old - and I mean old - metal square can of wheat. These cans of wheat were written into the contract when we bought the house on 36th Drive. Then we bought the other necessary hardware to complete the project. This is a metal piece used when putting in a furnace or fireplace or something like that.

Dad is trying to remove the entire top of the now emptied can of wheat. That might have been the hardest part.

Now the top has been removed and he is filing down the sharp edges. He also has cut a circle out of the side of the wheat can.

This is the magic filler that allows you to have fire and heat in the can - Vermiculite. Or in other words as printed on the bag Therm - o - rock. It is the isulator. The Rocket Stove is coming together nicely.

The metal tubing is in place and the metal shelf that will hold the fuel is also formed and secured.

The vermiculite has been poured into the can and now stabilizes and insulates the tubing. The top has been trimmed and has a hole in it where the metal tubing protrudes. We think we are ready for a trial run. So he has loaded newspaper down into the tubing - as instructed.

Inserting the sticks for fuel. Then a match is lit and applied to the newspaper.

The newspaper is flaming and the inside tips of the fuel are beginning to catch fire as well. Dad is all smiles. Success!

A nice flame is beginning to take shape.

Very quickly the flame begins coming up through the top of the metal tubing. Yes! It really works. In order to cook on it you place a grill on top of the wheat can - now AKA Rocket Stove - and place your pan on that and cook your meal.

Sheesh! The flame was really powerful and shot up quite a ways. The design makes it a very efficient stove. Because of the design you get a lot of heating power while using very little fuel. We are happy with it and may make one or two more - we might want to be cooking more than one item at a time.

Ahh!! The sweet sweet smell of success! Dad basks in the warmth and power of our new Rocket Stove. Now we have the power to cook if/when needed in an emergency situation. Now we just need to get all the food components stored up and ready to go as well.

Scott arrives and asks, "Where are the smores?" His timing is impeccable!

Art

2011-02-07T05:36:00.000-08:00

Sadie is a budding artist. While we were all going through the stomach flu at Christmas time she was busy designing get well cards for each of us. She also made some awesome Christmas decorations that we hung around the house. Here is some of her art.

1/1/11

2011-02-06T04:47:00.000-08:00

Early in the morning on 1/1/11 we got in our truck, loaded with all of Isaac's possessions, and headed up north. We were heading up to Utah for a quick stop and then on to Rexburg to deliver Isaac to BYU-I.

The trip to Utah is routine for us but with the weather had been quite severe so we contemplated going through Las Vegas. It is not much longer for us to make the trip through Vegas from this house. But after some consideration we just forged ahead our usual way. Isaac was wonderful company! NOT! And in many ways the trip was NOT usual.

We could see snow sprinkled mountains almost from the start. When we were still 60 miles outside of Flagstaff everything was covered with snow.

Before long the beautiful red rock mesas were peeking through the fluffy white stuff.

Then the snow got deeper. We could tell it was really cold outside.

Then the roads quit being completely clear and became partly covered with packed snow.

Shortly after that we had some real excitement. We heard a loud noise and immediately felt a thump, thump, thump. Yep, flat tire. Well wasn't that exciting? Dad sprung into action. I got the owners manual to help figure out how to release the spare tire from underneath the truck.

Isaac stood around - in his SHORTS! He was able to use his brute strength to lift the tailgate slightly so dad could get the tire off the truck.

I took a couple of pictures that turned out pretty good. But then the camera refused to work. I guess it just froze up - ha, ha - get it? Froze up?! Pretty funny. But really I called Scott and had him look at what the temperature was in Beaver, UT and it was a frigid 14! But we took care of the problem and continued on.

Anyway, we made it to Utah and had a great time visiting with Evan and Shanna, Lindsey and Rob, and of course the grandkids. We stayed through the weekend and then headed north to Idaho. Isaac and I drove the white Corolla with Kristy (Shanna's sister) squeezed into the back seat. And after dad got a new tire for the truck he headed up alone.

We stayed at Aunt Marcielle's house in Idaho Falls while we helped Isaac move into his apartment and get all set to start his classes. We enjoyed visiting with them and had a restful nights sleep. We only stayed one night because it snowed all day and we didn't want to get snowed in.

They had the snow plows out on the highway on our trip back to Utah.

We made it back to Utah and enjoyed celebrating Calvin's first birthday with everyone. I think I've already shared most of our fun times with them. But here's a picture of a nice icicle that Sadie just had to eat. Yummy!

That concludes my saga of how we started the new year - 1/1/11.

(Better late than never!)

Update

2011-02-04T06:03:00.000-08:00

Needed to update you all about yesterday's temperature. It did not get to 50 as predicted. It was only 44. This morning we started a lot warmer - try 24 at 6 am. So I predict we will reach 50 today. What a winter this is turning out to be! I'll check the hose when it gets light outside.

Blast of Cold Air

2011-02-03T06:05:00.000-08:00

A true blast of cold air has hit the Valley of the Sun. It is a frigid 20 degrees this morning. Yesterday it might have gotten to 44 and today we'll be lucky to get to 50.

The Pro-Am part of the Phoenix Open was cancelled yesterday due to the greens and grounds being frozen. Today is even colder - so who knows what will happen with the tournament. Our back hose has a frozen waterfall coming out of the spout - hopefully it thaws so I can water my garden (and hopefully it hasn't frozen!). My hearty tennis sisters and I even cancelled playing yesterday because it was not only cold but the wind was blowing and howling like crazy!

I heard Punxsatawney Phil saw his shadow so we are in for an early spring. But that won't happen until this blast of cold air makes its way through Arizona and the rest of the country. Today would be a great day for hot chocolate, homemade bread, a hot bowl of soup or chili, watching a DVD all cozied up in the couch, and yes - turning on the heater in the house.

Coyote

2011-01-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

We've all seen a cat jump up on a wall. Right? They face the wall and give a big jump and sort of scamper up to the top. Then they nonchalantly stroll along the top for whatever reason. Well yesterday we saw a variation on that.

We were at the Acoma Building (right across from Centennial High School) and we saw a coyote in the gravel area. He saw us walking to our car and turned to start walking away from us. He walked toward a fence. When we were still facing his direction and he was at the fence he jumped right on top of the fence. It looked effortless - his technique looked just a cat would do it. The fence was no baby fence either - it was at least 8 feet tall. Once on top of the fence it continued walking along. It glanced at us and we were still facing that direction and making progress toward our car. So it continued along the fence. Finally it just jumped into a yard on the other side of the fence. YIKES! I wouldn't want that in my yard.

Anyway it was an unusual sight to see. It was unusual to see a coyote so close to civilization. I mean we were right in a neighborhood. So anyway that is our "Jacques Cousteau" moment in the desert we know as Phoenix.

Loose Ends

2011-01-29T04:22:00.001-08:00

Tying up some loose ends with a variety of topics.

Mom, don't ever get rid of your golf cart. You know it is the best entertainment you have - besides you. It is perfect for filling up your water jug, how could we maneuver through your community yard sale any other way, Billie loves to take rides - and well look at this group who enjoyed a ride at Christmas time. So don't be getting rid of it.

We have seen some very cold days this winter. Wouldn't you know it - the winter I'm trying to get a garden to grow. So it has taken a very long time to see some progress. These pictures document the plants, cold, and current growing phase. I might add that I do see a couple of pea pods trying to fill up with delicious peas. The spinach is trying to grow as well. The bad news is that we have to have our tomatoes planted by next month in order to get some fruit before they burn up in the summer heat. So what am I supposed to do? What a dilemma!

After Christmas we loaded up and drove to Utah and then Idaho. We had a particular person we had to deliver up to Rexburg for school. That was a productive trip for me. Look at the projects I finished during the trip - 6 burp cloths and 2 blanket/burp cloth sets. And yes I did take some turns driving.

We had saved some large boxes and Sadie and Lindsey did some marvelous things with them. They created a multi-room "house" to play in. They created connections and "halls" to connect them together. They also made a stand alone mailbox and Christmas tree as added features. They colored and ate and read in that house - we even had some battery lamps they took inside so they could see better. It was a real hit!

And several years ago now my mom noticed an Applebee's "sale"? They were remodeling and she stopped by and bought a stained glass hanging lamp. She knew I liked stained glass. I know we hadn't yet bought this house so I'm not sure where I thought I could put it but when she asked if I wanted it I said "You bet!" She stored it for me for a couple of years. Then I stored it for a couple of years. I'm sure she thought I forgot about it and would never use it. But we finally managed to get it installed here in our new house. It looks perfect! Thanks mom for the lamp. And thanks Doug for the install.

There are still some loose ends to tie up but they will have to wait for another day - another post.