Candy, Citrus, and Champagne (yum, yum, never)

Steve keeps a bowl of lifesavers at his desk and this is what we found one morning when we opened up the mission office.  It reads:  To Elder Lambson (only the "lamb" part is a sheep) Love Elder Honey Man.  That could only be Elder Townsend, one of our zone leaders, who is from Florida and whose family has a huge honey business.  He was on splits with one of the APs and they came to the mission office after hours the night before.....

This is what we have been enjoying all week

We brought home the oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit from Amy's last Saturday and then, on Monday, the Parkers (they work in the mission office) brought us some more oranges and LEMONS.  Lots of lemons.  I made gluten-free lemon bars and a lemon pie yesterday and we have frozen the rest as juice.

Last night, ProMusica had a Champagne Salon fund-raiser to schmooze all the wealthy folks in Anthem (and believe me, there are a LOT of wealthy people here) into donating to the ProMusica organization.  Several musicians from the group were recruited to provide music.  I, thinking it would be like so many of the gigs I have played over the years, volunteered my services.  I figured I would play background music in a string quartet while people ate and drank.  When it was apparent that only one other violin was going to play, I thought fine, there are plenty of violin/cello duo books out there and I even got permission to purchase a few to be reimbursed.  Well, then it all came out that the musicians would NOT be playing background but would be "featured entertainment" throughout the evening.  Ugh!  And, the violinist, Alexandria, while a VERY nice and talented young woman, is terrible at communication so I went into the evening with no rehearsal together and only a vague idea of how things were going to go.  Not my favorite situation.  Thankfully, it went just fine.  But, I continue to be annoyed at how poorly the ProMusica organization is run (compared to Columbia Civic Orchestra) and how sloppy the overall communication is.

I glazed my little electric toothbrush holder yesterday.  Steve and I watched Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them on Friday night and we watched The Butler last night.  The first was completely entertaining a second time.  The second was one I had seen already, Steve had not.  It is a well done film.  I was alive during the horrible racial tension of the 60's and 70's but I was almost completely unaware of what was going on!  I don't remember watching events on the news or hearing them discussed at home.    Thankfully, my parents weren't part of the persecuters.  They just seemed pretty neutral. And, in my defense, I was just a little girl and young adolescent during that time period.

Steve is 65!

And he is a Medicare man!  And my hero for braving the treacherous hike through all the paperwork to enroll in Medicare.  It will be old hat by the time I turn 65!

Kirsti turned 27 on the same day Steve turned 65.  And Quinn turned 5 the day after.  Three bright spots in a rather dreary month.  Oh, and thank you Martin Luther King for being born in January.  Because of you, we have a wonderful three-day weekend in the same month. 

Steve and I had a lovely, quiet holiday on Monday.  I planted a small vegetable garden in back.  Green pole beans to climb the three trellises already in place and already on the irrigation system.  Two tomato plants to share the water that the basil plant is getting.  And three planters of yellow squash that are not getting irrigation so shower water will take care of them. (it takes at least a gallon of water before the shower water gets hot so I collect it and water the bougainvillia and another shrub that are also not on irrigation.  And now the squash, too).  We watched "Mulan" Monday night and I did some sewing. 

Tuesday through Friday held Zone Conferences throughout the mission.  Steve attends all four, I attend one and I picked the Flagstaff one this time hoping to see some snow.  Well, there were scattered patches in the woods is all.  BUT, I did get to see something besides cactus with the beautiful pine trees.  And the drive up to Flagstaff is quite gorgeous.  At the conference, it was very evident how small the LDS world is.  As I chatted with the Relief Society sisters fixing lunch, I found one from St. Johns who gave me some Lambson phone numbers.  I met the older sister of my niece-in-law!  Jerri's son Brent is married to Susette and I met her sister, Carmelle.  We ate lunch at the table of sister Sandberg who is from Grantsville and who knows Steve's sister Michelle's family quite well.  And, we discovered that her uncle served a mission in Brazil with Elder Farley, our mission executive secretary. 

Elder Farley and Sister Sandberg

After lunch, the missionaries always sing their APM pep song.  Here are Elders Campbell and Towle, our APs, leading the group.  That is President Collins at the far left.

Yesterday, Saturday, Steve and I drove to Mesa to visit family and to attend the temple.  It was good to visit with Jerri and Amy and we brought home a BUNCH of citrus from Amy's trees.....pink grapefruit, tangerines, and oranges.  This is the time of year that citrus is ripe so everywhere we drive, we see trees just loaded with fruit!  Last night we watched "Moana".  And, we brought home several DVD's from Jerri's apartment to enjoy over the next few months.  It was a happy week.

Soul food

We enjoyed the chimenea in our backyard Monday night.  Of course we made s'mores!

We took a bike ride around Anthem Saturday morning and this is what we saw.


I cleaned the toothbrush holder clay pieces yesterday.  The holey one will fit on the flat one.  It ain't pretty but it will be functional.



The fire, the bike ride, the pottery, some sewing, and watching "The Giver" on Friday and the live "Beauty and the Beast" on Saturday all fed my soul this week.  AND, we had RAIN Tuesday night.  All night!  THAT truly fed my soul.

Finally, I want to spend the rest of this blog on Elder Wall

Elder Jarek Wall is a Church Service Missionary from Phoenix who started his 18-month mission January 2nd as our mission technology expert.  He lives at home and works in the mission office Monday through Friday, 9-5:00.  He is a young man slight in stature and with obvious physical limitations but he is the BMITO (big man in the office) for sure!  He is so good with all technology.  But, not only is he good, he is patient with all the old brains around him. AND, not only that,  he is kind and self-effacing.  Whenever one of the senior missionaries praises his work, he always says "I did hardly anything".  And, no matter what he is working on, he always drops what he does to help.  It would be so easy for him to sigh and eye-roll when he is asked for yet another time to help with a computer issue that he has solved several times already but he doesn't.  He cheerfully and patiently works through the problem.  We all love Elder Wall.  And, a nerd side note - he was named for a video game character and everyone in his family has "fett" somewhere in their email address.  Isn't that just the BEST?!?!?

A quiet start to 2018

This past week has been pretty uneventful.  No photos, either...

New Year's Day found me sick in bed.  I did manage to bundle up so we could greet the 2018 sunrise.  We did pack up our small assortment of Christmas decorations - it took 15 minutes - and then I went back to bed. 

Steve and I watched "Amazing Grace" Wednesday night after we cleaned house.  We watched "Homeward Bound" (the 1993 talking version) last night.  We attended a senior missionary social at the mission home on Thursday night.  Between the time we left the office and when the social started, we enjoyed a Culver's hamburger dinner and I found a cute skirt on clearance at Sears.  We got to go to the temple Saturday morning.

I found a pottery studio quite nearby and I threw two small pieces yesterday!  We need an electric toothbrush holder which is why I even went.  It will be a small tray with an inverted bowl with two holes.  Stay tuned for a photo. 



 

The rest of 2017

It was a rather quiet week at the mission office between Christmas and New Year.  Steve and I were all by ourselves on the 26th and that day was mostly spent collecting and sorting additional Christmas packages for all the missionaries.  When I went to the post office to get them, it wasn't a handful but a whole huge cart full of boxes!  

Much of the three days we spent at the office was spent preparing for the January 2nd departures and arrivals.  Below is one of our favorite missionaries who returned to Chile - Elder David Huaiquinir.

On Friday, Steve and I traveled with my sister Juli to Mojave, California for a short visit with my sister, Judy.  As you can see, there is not a lot to look at in Mojave.  In the distance are hundreds of power windmills and an airplane "retirement" center.  That is about it. 

But, my sister was the reason we drove the 6 1/2 hour trip.  Sadly, I got sick with a stomach bug on the way there and Judy was already sick with a chest cold so our visit wasn't as wonderful as hoped.  On Saturday, Jill came by.

Eber's son, Ray, still lives on the property.  After a year of surgeries on his colon and thyroid, he looks pretty good!  He is still doing films, in fact.  (he has been a stunt man his whole career).  You can see the bandage on Steve's left ear.  He had a skin cancer removed on the 27th.  

We left for home after lunch on Saturday.  Short visit.  When we got to Anthem, I went directly to bed and stayed there through New Year's Day.  I worked a half day on Tuesday but came home to bed in the afternoon and it wasn't until Wednesday before I felt a hundred percent.   Thankfully, neither my sister Juli nor Steve have caught my bug.  

Christmas 2017

My brother and his wife, Jim and Joan, have a BIG Christmas eve dinner at their house to which they invite assorted family and friends.  Their house is decorated to the nines!  It takes Jim two days just to do the outside and I can't even imagine how many days it takes for Joan to decorate her eleven full-size themed trees!  Below you can see her Americana, Irish, and western trees.  The result is breathtaking...

This paper Santa was full of chocolate and a party favor.  I hung Steve's and mine on our little tree back home.

This wood-turned ornament was a gift from my cousin Neil who made it himself.  What a treasure!

Christmas day was peaceful and quiet.  Steve and I enjoyed all our phone / Facetime conversations with all the kids throughout the day.  The plan was to enjoy extended family association and dinner in Mesa at the Ellsworths but I got a text early in the day stating that all were sick at their home and they were cancelling.  I called my sister Juli, who was also joining in, and she drove to our house instead.  Thankfully, we had leftover turkey from our Dec. 23rd dinner and some leftover ham slices in the freezer.  Juli brought the gluten-free apple pie she had made.  And we had all the veggies and fruits we were going to bring to the Ellsworths so we had a delicious feast.  After, we enjoyed watching "It's A Wonderful Life" and then Juli left and Christmas 2017 was over.