March is winding down...

Steve and I drove to Mesa yesterday. Our first stop was to visit my sister Jerri.  She lives in a part of Mesa that used to be just acres and acres of orange groves and many of the trees still exist amidst the homes and other development.  And, the end of March is when orange trees blossom.  So, as we were nearing Jerri's place, all of sudden, we smelled this amazing scent, even through our closed car windows and it was the fragrance of hundreds of blossoming orange trees.  The crazy thing about citrus is that the trees will bloom even though there is still ripe fruit on the branches!

After a nice visit with Jerri - who is looking very good - we drove further east in Mesa (that city is just huge!) to the home of my cousin Neil Fraedrich and his wife Gloria.  They are from Oregon and they still live there in the summer but, when Neil retired, they started coming to Arizona in the winter.  Neil grew up in Phoenix.  The first few years, they brought their 5th wheel and lived in one of the dozens of "snow bird" RV parks.  However, last year, they decided to buy a small home.  And, even though it is "older" (built in the 80's), it is really nice and it is in a very nice retirement community with all the amenities of a snow bird RV park (i.e. tons of activities every day).  Neil's older brother Paul has also begun to winter in Arizona and he came over from his RV park to join us for a delicious lunch of grilled chicken kabobs.  We had a very nice visit and we decided that Steve and I will just have to plan to make an Arizona trip most winters to visit all the family we have out here.

 above:  Paul, me, Neil.  below, Gloria takes my place

Our last stop in Mesa was to drop off the forty-two draw string bags for Days for Girl that I had been working on these past six weeks and to pick up more sewing supplies to work on. Then, we had to high tail it back up to Anthem because I was to accompany my adult cello student, Nathan Coons, who was performing "Chanson Triste" at the annual stake Music in the Park.  Unlike last year, when we had a steady rain throughout the entire event, this year had perfect weather.

I sat by the sister missionaries, Sisters Redford (l) and Windish (r)








































Later last evening, Steve grilled pork steaks on our little make-shift barbeque set-up and we ate outside on the patio and then went inside and watched the "in-famous"  "The Three Amigos".  What a great Saturday.

As for the rest of the week, I helped pick up two more Toyota Tacoma trucks to make a total of six new trucks to be traded out with old Nissan Frontiers.  We got our tax statement back from the accountant and we hardly have to pay a thing this year!  That is a switch.  We plan to buy a new computer and to replace the horrible speakers in our car with the money we have saved and will now not have to give to the government.  Yay.

Happy SPRING in Arizona!

First of all, a picture of our corned beef and cabbage St. Patrick's Day feast last Sunday.  Not shown is the amazing lemon pie I made to top it all off.

I just love spring and even here in Arizona, I find the joys of a desert spring.   One great thing is that Arizona does not observe daylight saving time so that half-way through March, we are not plummeted back into darkness on our morning walks.  With the sun coming sooner, we get to enjoy birdsong greeting the new day and we get to observe wildlife.  The other morning, we watched two javelina cross the road right by our house.  

Jacaranda trees are not native to Arizona but they thrive here and their fragrant blooms appear in the spring

Saturday morning, we attended the temple marriage of a former Arizona Phoenix missionary, Gabriel de la Cruz.  He met his bride while serving in Cottonwood.  Three of his former companions were groomsmen.  (l-r - Mitch Johnson, David Groesbeck, Brandon Lewis).  Brandon flew to Utah from Florida and then all three drove down for the event.  It was so great to see them again.

Saturday afternoon, we went to Cave Creek with Sisters Laura Jones and Connie Ziegler.  Connie and her husband lived in Cave Creek over fifty years ago and she was curious to see if the Jewel of the Creek was the same place she used to hike back when it wasn't called by that name.  With all the rain we have had this winter, the area was even more gorgeous.  Temperatures were perfect - warm but cooled by a small breeze.  It was fun to make that hike with Laura and Connie.

In an earlier blog post, I pictured the blanket of small yellow wildflowers.  Since then, they have just multiplied and the entire Phoenix desert is just carpeted in yellow.  When you get up close, you can see that they are just little yellow ball flowers.

More wildflowers from our hike

even the cholla cactus are getting new growth

Connie is quite short and she decided to explore the cave on the hike.

She also shared some of her photos from the day.  I liked this one

On our way out of the park, we saw these two sentinel rooks

We returned to Anthem and enjoyed Reuben sandwiches, broccoli salad, and lemon cake.
After they left, I sewed and watched two episodes of Lark Rise to Candleford.  Friday evening, Steve and I watched Ant Man and the Wasp. 

Another week in March

The mission office got a package from Norway this week.  It was from former ASL missionary, Elder Vagen and it had chocolate for all.  Here is the candy bar that he gave to us and the Poulsons.  It was delicious.  And we really miss Elder Vagen and hope all is going well for him...

We also had a visit from Scruffy, Elder Wall's grandparent's Yorkie.  He was SO cute.

We had movie night at the Murrays again last night.  Here is Richelle and her two boys and her dad, Dale Murray.  His wife, Karen, is off camera.  We watched "The Christmas Card" - one of Dale's favorites and it is now one we will buy to add to our Christmas movie collection.  

Steve and I visited the Arizona state capital Saturday morning.  The building is no longer used as a legislative building because it is too small.  It is now a museum. 

such beautiful workmanship...

 And, on the grounds are several monuments to war veterans.  Prominent inside the museum and out are memorials to the battleship Arizona that was sunk at Pearl Harbor.  Below is the actual main mast from the ship. 

a tribute to police dogs killed in the line of duty.  

Below is a statue that reminded me of my dad...

We watched a Murray-loaned DVD on Friday "Beautician and the Beast" (SO funny and charming) while we squeezed about a bushel of lemons!  Guess what we are having for dessert today???  Yep, lemon pie.  

I also finally mailed off our income tax documents on Friday.  Whew!  Glad to have that monkey off my back.  Now the accountants get to have it - bwahahah.

Temperatures are warming up - not too hot, though.  We enjoyed eating dinner out on our back patio last night and we are opening our windows.  It was a nice week. 

From Glendale To Tucson

Steve and I had a rather busy week with most nights filled with non-normal activities. It started on Tuesday.  As already reported, I have a lot of extended family living here in the Phoenix valley.  One cousin on my dad's side has proven to be extremely elusive.  I have emailed him more than once to try to get together and he has not shown an interest.  Which is too bad because we share common interests - he is a retired band teacher and his hobby is pottery!   I knew he played in the Glendale Community Band so I figured the only way I was going to see this cousin was to attend a concert and that is what Steve and I did Tuesday night.  He plays first chair tuba so he sat way back on the stage.  And, his ensemble performed first and was followed by the college wind ensemble performed second so I wasn't really sure how to connect.  Happily, I finally figured the only way to get to meet him was to find him backstage at the end of his performance and that turned out to be correct.  There was this tall fellow with a big old tuba standing outside the back of the performing arts center and it was, indeed, my cousin, Keith Preston.  I got to meet his daughter who is also a band teacher and plays trumpet in the ensemble.  I also got to meet his wife who walked up a few moments after we did. We had a nice little visit where we determined that he last time we actually saw each other was in the late sixties/early seventies when we were both in high school!  And, here we are

Wednesday night was supposed to be a temple night but Steve's belly was not feeling well so we stayed home.

Thursday morning, Steve had his six-month check up with the spine doctor and he got a clean bill of health with no more follow-up visits.  Good thing.  We were not about to fly back to Phoenix just to see the spine doc.

Thursday evening was a Shake & Bake (Mission president makes shakes and everyone else brings baked goods) at the mission home.  I would have sat this one out but I was playing my cello with a senior sister missionary who composes and she had written a piece for piano and cello and we were to perform that night.  Steve actually did stay home.  

Friday evening, we met my cousin on my mom's side, Dave Fraedrich, and his wife Shelley at the nearby movie theater to see "Captain Marvel".  We don't usually go to movies the week they release but Dave and Shelley are huge movie buffs and they invited us and we thought "why not?"  Dave bought the tickets two days ahead because, of course, the 7:00 pm show would be full on the actual day.  We had seats in the second row but, with the reclining chairs, it was really not a problem.  And, we got to watch the show with guys dressed as Captain America and Winter Soldier and who knows who else?  We had a great time and we loved the movie.

Saturday, my sister Juli drove down from Payson and we had a wonderful day down in Tucson.  Our first stop was to visit a distant cousin who knows a lot about the history of Binghampton - which is the area of Tucson where my grandparents and parents lived - and he has a lot of photos.  He shared copies of two photos with me.  The first one is of my grandparents and, most likely, daughters Thelma and Lillian in 1911 standing in front of their first home.  The next photo shows their ultimate house in the left side of the photo.

Another stop was to visit this house - now a hundred years old!  (can you see the resemblance?)  I saw it briefly over last Thanksgiving break and I wanted to go again and to bring my sister.  If you will recall, it is now a ceramic studio.

When I was there last, it was closed for the holidays and Maxine, the owner, just "happened" to be there.  This time, the studio was in full swing with Maxine very busy which was actually nice because it allowed Juli and I to just wander around un-escorted.  Here are some pictures of our explorations:

We are pretty sure the floors are original.  As is the brick as one goes into the cellar

In the same neighborhood of Binghampton is a museum of miniatures that was just wonderful.  SO many miniature rooms, houses, displays.  Our eyes hurt when we left!  Below are just a few samples of what we saw...

check out the miniature train in the miniature room!

a floor display of miniatures - probably because they ran out of wall space!!!

There was a whole display of KEWPIES!!!!!  Hundreds of them!!!!

This is a miniature little girl's clothes shop.  LOOK at the detail on the miniature dresses - even the ones that are crochetted!!

It was so fun - and I am really inspired to work on my two doll houses when I get back to Missouri.

On our way to our last stop, we drove by the "bone yard" where hundreds and hundreds of decommissioned military planes are parked row upon row on either side of the road.  It was impressive!  Below is just two rows....

Our final destination was to visit the San Xavier mission a little south and east of Tucson.  It is over 300 years old and the oldest intact European structure in Arizona.  (and, evidently, the reason the one tower is unfinished is because they ran out of money!)

Finally, we saw two  - TWO - roadrunners just outside the mission.  So cool!