Snow in Phoenix?!?!?

This past Thursday and Friday, the entire state of Arizona was under clouds.  In the north, it snowed in record amounts:  Flagstaff broke a 100 year old snowfall record and got three feet.  Payson got 28 inches.  On Wednesday, in anticipation of the storm, the Payson school district cancelled school both Thursday and Friday so my sister had a four-day weekend.  

Down in Phoenix, we got a lot of rain on Thursday.  But, as we drove home and got closer to Anthem, we saw white stuff along the highway!  Snow????  Actually, hail.  Hail so mighty that it all the trees have piles of leaves on the ground.  See the green under the tree on the left?

Friday morning, on the other hand, we woke up to actual snow.  The evidence was on our Element and the hills around Anthem were white.  It rained all of Friday and Saturday morning, we woke up to sunshine and WHITE SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS all around Phoenix!  

We got to go to the temple Saturday afternoon with our nine departing missionaries and President and Sister Collins.  We fed our own Anthem missionaries, Elders Eldridge and Faber, last night.  We will feed our sister missionaries this evening.  Friday night, Steve did temple baptisms (I did mine the week before when he was feeling so poorly from his cold) and I watched the video "Persuasion" (the Ciaran Hinds-Amanda Root version).  And, last night, we both watched "Galaxy Quest".   It was a most happy weekend of movie watching.  And, I was able to finish my Alice sewing projects.  I had so much fabric after making her dress that I made an apron, a sunhat, a drawstring bag, a zippered bag, and a tote bag.  

Fraedrich cousin get-together

Saturday, February 16th, we had a Fraedrich cousin potluck gathering at Amy's in Mesa.  It was similar to the one we had last year except many folks were missing.  Jim is having skin cancer treatments on his face so he looks like a burn victim and he chose to stay home.  Kay Winfield is also recovering from a wound that needs regular exposure to the air so she declined.  Her sister, Janet, was not able to fly out from Georgia this year.  Linda and Rod Dale had out of town visitors and were traveling with them.  And, dear Beverly Martin passed away last fall.  But, we DID get to see Paul Fraedrich this year as well as Harriet's daughter, Amy Dimon with her little ten-year old girl, Serenity.  It was especially significant for Amy Dimon since she was not aware she had so much family here in Phoenix - where she has lived her entire life!  How is this possible?  Her grandparents, Edward and especially Jane were not particularly fond of the fact that some of us are members of the Church so, once my parents died, there was not a lot of association with our family and theirs.  Amy's father suffered from severe mental illness which impacted her whole family and she moved out when she was sixteen.  The repercussions of that continue today and she has no contact with her mother.  Thankfully, her uncles, Paul and Neil keep in contact with her which is how she came to be invited.  We all had a really great visit.  

Below is the gang:  

l-r  Neil Fraedrich, Juli Davies, Paul Fraedrich, Jerri, Shelley Fraedrich, (Dave's wife), Dave Fraedrich, Serenity, and Amy Dimon.  

Below is Amy & Cade Ellsworth, and Gloria Fraedrich, Neil's wife.

Amy and her mom, Jerri.

Valentine week

For Valentine's Day, Steve and I drove to the Mesa Arts Center to hear violinist, Joshua Bell.  It was in a gorgeous venue and we had decent seats for "nosebleed".  We were in the balcony but on the very edge close to the stage.  Our seats were located in a box like the the top left box you see in the photo.  And the next photo shows our view.

Bell played three sonatas - Beethoven, Prokofiev, and Grieg.  All three were amazing, of course.  As was his pianist.

We had rain all day on Thursday.  I am getting so excited for spring desert flowers, thanks to all the rain we have received this winter.  Blooming now is this bush shown below.  I don't know the name.

The mission office received a TON of missionary packages last week - probably because of Valentine's Day.  Here is Elders Richardson and Eilers with boxes for their zone.  The next photo shows them again as well as Elders Sapp and Stucki.

Here I am with Sister Winmill who leaves for home on the 26th.  I remember when she arrived!  

This is a photo of all the senior sister missionaries having lunch at the newly opened, nearby Costa Vida. (Our mission president is CEO of Costa Vida and this particular store is run by one of his sons.  All missionaries get half-off prices).  It is gluten-free friendly but NOT cilantro-free friendly.  Boo.

l-r  Sisters Hutchens, Langlous, Harris, Poulson, me, Jones, Ziegler

I will end with three random photos:

The sunflowers on our kitchen table, and a traffic light that neither Steve nor I have ever seen before:  A red and a green U-turn light right by the high school here in Anthem.

A Historic Visit

Sunday, February 10th, Russell M. Nelson and Dallen Oaks and their wives were in Phoenix for a devotional for the entire Phoenix valley.  It was a greatly anticipated event among all our missionaries as well as all the members of our ward.  It was held in the State Farm arena where the Phoenix Cardinals play football - a pretty huge venue.  But, considering all the members of the church in the area, you can imagine that tickets were a precious commodity.  Thankfully, due to our missionary status, Steve and I got two tickets.  Those without tickets were able to watch the devotional in their stake center.  It was even broadcast to Payson and other far-flung areas.  

Scheduled to begin at 6:00, Steve and I left at 4:10 for the 30-mile drive on interstate and we got to the arena area at about 4:40.  And, then we sat in traffic, slowly creeping forward.  At one point, we were re-routed by a lady wearing a "traffic vest" claiming that her way would lead to parking (In hindsight, I wonder how legitimate she was) and that was the beginning of an hour of frustration.  Her route actually took us AWAY from the stadium and across the highway!  And it took us an hour to make our way back through horrible traffic (regular Sunday afternoon Phoenix traffic as well as devotional traffic) to a parking lot.  By 5:50, we were STILL trying to make it to parking - to a lot waaay away from the stadium with a double line of barely moving cars.  And we are at least twenty cars behind the front.  At that point, we said "forget it".  I got out of the car and asked the lady in the SUV next to me if she would allow us to make a U-turn in front of her so we could leave and find a nearby stake center.  We got to the Sweetwater building at about 6:10 and watched the devotional from there.  Sigh!  It would have been so great to have been a part of such a historic event.  On the other hand, we were still able to enjoy the devotional AND we got home a whole lot earlier than those who were in the stadium.  

A trip to the Gila Valley

When we arrived in Arizona for our mission, we decided we wanted to visit all six temples in the state - Phoenix, Mesa, Gilbert, Tucson, Snowflake, and Gila Valley.  We were able to check off the last of these temples on Saturday, February 9th when we drove the three hours eastward to the Gila Valley temple.  

I started to write that we drove through some rather remote areas to get there but then I realized that much of Arizona is remote!  I have said before that there is Phoenix and then there is the rest of Arizona.  And, once you get away from Phoenix, there is a whole lot of nothing.  Pretty, though, in it's desert-y way.  Arizona is home to many Native American reservations and our route to the Gila Valley went through  Apache territory.  One striking feature was the huge amount of litter all along the highway - for miles and miles.  I always thought that Native Americans "respected the land".  Then, I wondered if maybe this is their way of thumbing their noses at the United States - by throwing trash on the U.S. highway that ran through their land?  I don't know.  The three "main" towns along the way are Superior, Miami, and Globe.  All three are mining towns.  We also drove through Queen Creek canyon - very rugged and apparently, a favorite for rock climbers.

We tried to do a little sight-seeing in Miami at a little museum - but it was closed.  We took photos outside anyway.  Behind Steve and me in the first photo is a big black slag heap.  You can also see it in the middle photo

We finished our day with dinner in Florence with Paul and Nancy Hansen.  They returned from their mission in Independence/Liberty last summer so Paul could have colon surgery for cancer.  He looks great and we had a terrific visit with them.   Sadly, I forgot to take a photo!

Vehicle Inspection Zone Conference time again

This past week was our last full week vehicle inspection zone conference. We have one more left in April but it will be a two-day condensed event and we will have Elder and Sister Harris to help us.   

Tuesday, we were up in Prescott and it was cold.  Even the building was cold.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were here in Phoenix and, while the mornings were chilly, it warmed up to perfect temperatures by the time we actually inspected the cars (around 9:45 to 11:15).  Our labors were serenaded by a great tailed grackle on Wednesday, a mourning dove on Thursday, and a mocking bird on Friday.  We also had jet fly-bys on Friday since we were close to Luke AFB.  The gluten-free options for me for lunch were varied.  Tuesday was the best - the Relief Society sisters really did a good job of making my lunch as much like the gluten-full lunch.  It went downhill from there to where, on Friday, they didn't have any idea they needed to provide a gluten-free lunch and absolutely nothing was offered.  Those sisters felt badly and tried to make up for it by offering mixed nuts and M&Ms from their storage closet.  Good thing I had already had yogurt, a smoothie, and a banana that morning.  (I did enjoy the nuts and chocolate, by the way).  These inspection weeks really disrupt things - not just our eating habits.  Our morning routine is modified.  We have to drive a huge 12-passenger van every day.  We come home just wiped out making it hard to be motivated to do our evening duties.  So, I am glad this past week is over...

Some great things happened this week, however.  Steve and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary on Thursday.  We celebrated on Saturday with dinner and a movie.  We had hoped to eat at Abuelos but, after the temple, we had to take the van to the mission home and it took longer than anticipated to gas it up and drop it off and the restaurant was already in full Saturday night crowd mode so we took ourselves to Culvers instead.  A delicious alternative.  The movie we saw was "The Kid Who Would Be King".  It was just delightful.

Another great event was getting to hear Jon Schmidt (of the Piano Guys) play the piano in our stake center!  He and his wife were invited to speak for a Relief Society event.  My sister, Juli, drove down from Payson to join us.  It was a very nice evening.

We came home Friday evening to no hot water!  We bathed Saturday morning the old fashioned way - heating water up on the stove and mixing it with cold tap water.  Thankfully, repairmen came and replaced the heater.  And, our washer in Columbia is dying.  So, I bought a new one on Home Depot online.  When we return home, our washer and dryer will both match the ones we have been using here in Anthem.  Glad we've had a chance for a trial run here.