President's Day week

The mission office was closed for President's Day so Steve and I decided to visit my sister Juli in Payson.  It was chilly and rainy all day and we saw the most amazing rainbow on the drive up.  

Juli's yard had daffodils and grape hyacinths blooming and she shared with me.

Because of the stormy weather (it even tried to spit out a few snowflakes) and because Juli was still recovering her strength from her bout of flu, we just stayed at her place and enjoyed her fireplace, watched "Wonder" on DVD,(loved it!) and ate tacos.  A nice day.

A few photos from the mission office this week:  The mother of one of our sister missionaries was in Phoenix for a work conference and she brought in a gift bag for her daughter and also these little planters that she made in one of her conference workshops.  Elder Wall has been working on distributing Mesa temple Easter pageant pass-along cards that came in so many small boxes that he built a box tower in the workroom.  And, he and I tackled one of the outside storage pods we have at our office and we organized and shelved several black trash bags full of kitchen items. 

It is another ProMusica concert weekend and last night's performance went about 97% perfect.  I am sitting first chair and I was happy with my performance.  Because of the concert schedule, Steve and I didn't do anything Friday night since I was in rehearsal.  And, we kept our Saturday low-key.  We worked on taxes some more, Steve baked, and I sewed some more on the new bedspread I am creating to help make our bed better match the wall color.  I also painted a wooden breadbox in preparation for the next rosemuling project I will do with Janet.  On Wednesday night, I finished (I think) the bowl she was helping me paint so it is on to something new.  Her cute little Westie puppy, Mochie, keeps us company as we paint.  And that is just fine with me :)

Twice to Mesa this week

Jerri celebrated her 84th birthday on Monday so Steve and I drove to Mesa to help celebrate.  Jim and Joan came and Juli drove down from Payson so we had four of the five siblings together.  We had our photo taken by a professional so hopefully, I will get a copy at some point.  I did take a picture of Jerri with all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren (Annie and Zach, Jim's kids, were not there)

Tuesday was orchestra rehearsal.  I guess all the community orchestras in the Phoenix valley are performing on the same weekend (Feb. 24th) so the only cellists will be Malcomb and me!  No contract players (i.e. ringers) Yikes!  I have been practicing the music like crazy and I hope Malcomb is, too.  

Wednesday was Valentine's Day.  And the day our new set of missionaries arrived.  And the day our bike mechanic missionary works on bikes.  And when it seemed like most of the mission came through the office to pick up something, drop off something, talk to someone.  It was organized chaos.  And, it RAINED ALL DAY!  

Elders Hatton and Morrill

Elder Thomas, Chilson, Leon, Lopez, and Crook helping to attach a dorm fridge to the top of Elder Chilson's station wagon.  

Thursday was Relief Society.  Friday we watched "The Lake House".  Steve had never seen it and he had a hard time wrapping his head around the time warp.  

Saturday, we went back to the Mesa / Gilbert  area.  We did a sealing session at the incredibly gorgeous Gilbert Temple and then we drove up to Mesa to hear Cade sing in Regional Choir (an auditioned choir similar to Missouri's District Choir).  Maybe he will get into All-State Choir???  The concert was so nice and it was fun to see all the Ellsworths again.  

Saturday evening, back in Anthem, I was almost struck by a car while riding my bike.  Steve and I had gone to the grocery store to pick up some peaches on sale and, when we were almost home, a left turner was not paying attention (probably texting) and failed to give me right-of-way.  I shouted and maybe he heard me or maybe he just happened to look up from his lap but whatever the case, he swerved and missed me.  And, so I live another day here in Arizona.

A tale of two devices

Steve had a really great Staples coupon he needed to use or it would expire so he bought 

1. a  Google Home Mini

2. a Jam Classic 20 Bluetooth speaker

We have spent the weekend exploring both devices.  We love the Google Home and look forward to expanding the capabilities in the weeks to come.  We are extremely disappointed with the Jam speaker and it is going to be returned.  MY biggest complaint is that it doesn't go very loud.  In addition, the audio is pretty sketchy when talking on the phone through it. 

We got to attend the temple yesterday morning.  Having a temple only twenty minutes away can be habit-forming.  In the afternoon, Steve and I attended an "old person dinner".  I didn't want to go - because I'm not OLD!!!  But, we were asked to sing a duet and they provided gluten-free lasagne so we were committed.  And, I'm glad we went.  Although not heavily attended, we enjoyed getting to know those who did.  All three wards that meet in our building were invited and Steve and I sat at the Parkside Ward table where I met a woman who was born and raised in St. Louis!  Also at our table was a fellow who had set up a photo studio in an adjoining room for everyone to get their picture taken.  The event was put on by a group of families in the three wards who want to teach their children how to give service.  Two of the families I happen to know fairly well since I teach their children cello lessons.  And so, it was fun to be served and serenaded by little Lottie Anderson and Erik Lucas and their siblings.  Steve's and my song went well.  We sang "If I Loved You" from Carousel and it was actually a reprise.  We sang this duet way back when we were newly weds living in Provo for a student ward function.  

Weather here is just......well.....amazing.  How can the rest of my family be enduring frigid temperatures and ice and snow and we have sunny and mild day after day?  Steve and I rode bikes to the Dollar Tree late yesterday afternoon and it was such a beautiful ride!  Hot air balloons continue to dot the sky every morning and evening.  Below is a picture of the view on our way to the office Friday morning.  They were so low and right over the interstate.

Otherwise, nothing much to report.  We are working on getting our tax information collected to send off to the accountant.  I am learning how to paint in the rosemaling style from Janet Wells, our church friend down the street.  I will post a photo when I am finished with the bowl I am working on.  The Pro Music orchestra is working on Sigfried's Idyll by Wagner and Pavane by Faure for our end-of-February concert so I am trying to practice through all the difficult key signatures as much as I can.  We watched one of the DVDs I am borrowing from Jerri on Friday night called "The Inheritance".  It was a made-for-TV movie with Thomas Gibson (Criminal Minds).  Kind of a cheesy romantic movie.  

Oh, a funny Mission Office story to end....Sister Parker got a phone call on Wednesday from Fed Ex telling her they had forty (40) boxes to be delivered and when would we like them?  FORTY BOXES!  Only, we, to our knowledge, hadn't ordered forty boxes of anything.  Sister Parker called all the mission president and Salt Lake to try to learn where these boxes were coming from.  To add to the mystery, the old mission president's name - Spencer Griffin - was on the packing slip.  He's been gone for 8 months!  Where were we going to put these forty boxes?????  Thankfully, the Bishop's Storehouse in our building agreed to help with that problem.  Phew!  And, so Thursday afternoon came and the forty boxes arrived and....... each box was only about the size of a half-gallon of milk.  And they were filled with pass-along cards for the Mesa Temple Easter pageant!  Wow, what a lot of worry and fuss over nothing.  

What is it????

well, it is our new electric toothbrush holder.  The little ceramic piece I threw in January....

January ends and February begins

We had a "January thaw" here in Arizona - temperatures climbed into the low 80's.....

At the office, we have been inundated with boxes of teaching materials being returned from missionary apartments (missionary hoarding).  I WISH I had taken a before photo of the work room but, sadly, you will simply have to imagine this scene with boxes all over and under the worktable with pamphlets, pass-along cards, books, DVDs spilling out over the tops.

With the help of Sisters Stevens and Oaks 

and Elder Hatton (no photo), everything is now organized and sorted...at least until the next missionary apartment gets cleaned out!  Below left is all Spanish materials with English on the right.  CDs and DVDs are no longer used since our missionaries have smart phones and tablets and everything is in gospel library on-line.  So, I put all those materials on the top shelf and in boxes above the shelves - just in case someone actually needs one.

We have two storage areas in the building outside of the office.  We put additional boxes of pamphlets on the top shelf of the supply closet (where missionaries can get cleaning supplies and other items for their apartments.  Everything in these boxes were piled on the work table earlier this week!

We also have three storage pods just outside the building.  Two of them hold furniture and other apartment supplies.  The one on the far right is for bicycles.

Fridays are really slow office days and this week was no exception.  In addition to paying bills, I have started to work on genealogy and indexing on those days to pass away the hours.  We did get a little visit from a former Arizona Phoenix mission president and his wife - President and sister Taylor.  Turns out that she is sisters to Susan Holman, a friend from Columbia!  

On Saturday, Steve and I went to Mesa to visit my sister Jerri and to help Amy clean Jerri's casita in their back yard.  I found lots of treasures that Jerri won't ever use again including a painting I gave her almost 30 years ago that was buried in a box.  It is now hanging on my wall.  I did quite a bit of Days for Girls sewing throughout the week in preparation for Saturday's meeting.  What a great organization and a fun reason for me to sew.  

43 years!

Steve and I celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary on Wednesday, January 31st.  

It all started in BYU marching band in the fall of 1973

And look where we are now...