Second week in October

It was "departure/arrival/transfer week". Always a busy time.  Here is a van-full of our newest missionaries fresh off the plane from the Provo MTC.  Yes, all you see are all sisters and one lucky elder from Missiouri.  

Seminary classes started in the house on Tuesday (Monday was a school holiday).  

Saturday morning, Steve and I helped in a community clean-the-high-school project.  We wiped down outdoor tables and guard rails with folks from our church and other churches around Anthem.  Here is Steve taking a phone call from one of the missionaries having a car issue.....

We spent the afternoon and evening with Jim and Joan and her aunt Carol and uncle Wayne and Fran, a retired school colleague of Joan's.  First, we went to see "You Can't Take It With You" put on by a community theater group.  Jim and Joan's neighbors, and dear friends, had two of the leads.  It was a delightful play.  Then we all went back to Jim and Joan's for dinner and visiting.  

back: Wayne, Jim, Fran, Steve

front: Carol, Joan

Carol is only about a year older than Joan and they are more like sisters than aunt-niece.  They both love to shop and decorate and, over the years, they have been in charge of decorating the tables for the annual archeaology group that Jim and Joan belong to.  This year, the theme is "reindeer" and, after we all left last night, Carol and Joan were going to work on decorations.  Joan had already put in hours of work putting together these little reindeer sleigh favors.  

 The dining room was full of all their decorating supplies

Last year, the theme was snowmen and this was one of their table centerpieces

Wayne, who claims to not be artistic, crafted the lighted saguaro cactus above and the ocatillo made of rebar below

He also created this six-foot high saguaro Christmas tree a few years ago....

 

And check out the antique sleigh that makes up the decor of the living room.  You can be sure it will be a featured item in this year's banquet decor.

Today, our ward sacrament meeting had three speakers - all leaving this week for missions (Honduras, Boise, Vancouver).  The last Sunday in September, we had three others leave for missions (Spain, and two South American countries).  That is SIX missionaries leaving from our ward in less than a month.  Incredible!

Oh, and a follow-up on the ProMusica orchestra rehearsal this week......it was MUCH better attended because 1) it was a full orchestra and not just a string sectional and 2) the "contract" (i.e. paid) musicians were there.  It was a fun rehearsal.  I went feeling worn out from work at the mission office and came home feeling energized. 

First week in October

While the rest of the family enjoys gorgeous fall colors and temperatures, we here in Arizona are enjoying non-triple digit temperatures!  I made Santa Fe cheese soup yesterday for a small ward social and it was truly out of place!  The social was held outside at a park and, for the first hour, until the sun went down a bit, it was a bit warmish (but tolerable).  The occasion was to eat stinky fish.  The Lucas family in our ward lived in Sweden for three years and this event is a tradition in Sweden.  It is called "surstomming".  So, Rich Lucas ordered a can of this stinky fish and they built a ward party around it.  Eating the fish plain is not a good idea but the recommended way to consume it involves a gluten-full cracker so I didn't try it.  Steve did.  My hero.....

Rich Lucas opening the can - the smell wafting out was pretty rank!

Below is Steve eating the stinky fish and not gagging.






I enjoyed getting to know a few more sisters in the ward.  (and why didn't our mission packing list include folding lawn chairs?????  We could have used them last night).

We attended the temple yesterday morning and in our very full session, we counted nine of our missionaries (Elders Litster, G (he is from Mongolia and I can't remember how to spell his name - everyone just calls him "Elder G"), Phipps, Gardner, Fullmer, Schmid, Thebaud, Rosengren and Salinas.  It was just wonderful.

We had three other missionaries over for dinner Friday night.  Elders Huaquinir, Leon, and Kinikini.  They are Spanish-speaking and, when I asked what they would like to eat, they said "anything BUT Mexican!"  So, we cooked a turkey breast (why didn't our mission packing list include a 6-quart crock pot!) and all the fixings.  I had to borrow a crock pot from the mission home to fit the turkey.  In talking with Elder Leon, who is one of our four missionaries from the Puerto Rico mission, we learned he is from the Kenniwick Washington area which is where Elise served her mission.  We texted Elise and she actually remembered the Leon family!  Of course, our elder would have only been five years old when she served so he didn't remember her but it was still cool to find a connection.  Huaquinir is from Chili and Kinikini goes back home to Wyoming next week (his family is from Samoa).

Elder Leon and Steve



Elders Huaquinir and Kinikini

My sister Juli had her fall break this past week and she came down to the valley on Wednesday for a doctor appointment, to visit Jerri, and to have dinner with Steve and me before returning home.  She toured the mission office and met the office staff and President Collins and we checked out the Deseret Industries before we drove up to Anthem.

Steve and I both now have library cards and we checked out a interesting BBC mini-series based upon a Charles Dickens novel called "Martin Chuzzlewitt".  It is somewhat dated, being filmed in the ninties, and it is rather slow at times but ultimately, it was a good watch with a good ending.  We enjoyed watching an episode at a time over the past week.

Finally, I have joined an orchestra here.   It is called ProMusica.   I wasn't going to.  I went to the first rehearsal of another orchestra (North Valley Orchestra) back in August and left feeling that I just didn't need to continue.  But, a member of the ward is in ProMusica and she contacted the director about me - calling me a "professional" (which I am most certainly NOT) - and I was invited to play.  Tuesday's rehearsal was a string sectional and I was one of only four in attendance! (two cellos, one viola, and one very weak second violin)   Apparently, the model for this group is to hire "professionals" for the last three or four rehearsals to beef up the sound.  Until then, the members rehearse without them.  And, the members actually have to PAY about $150 per year to play (probably to pay for the professionals).   As of now, I will not have to pay but I will also not BE paid since I am not one of the "professionals" (and gladly so since I don't want the pressure of a professional).  And, I left feeling good about this group.  This sad little orchestra needs me and they don't have to pay me.

This pretty much sums up our first week in October.

Alice Matilda and the missionaries

Kirsti gave birth to Alice Matilda Merrill on Wednesday morning at 5:35.  8 lbs. 11 oz.  20 inches long - she came by C-section.  Since then, she has given us all a little bit of a scare with her breathing and she is going home tomorrow on oxygen for a couple of weeks.  Kirsti is recovering from her surgery and baby Alice is nursing very well.  Just that breathing thing!  She is so beautiful and I am dying to go up to Utah hold her!  Steve and I will go up for her blessing in December (it had to be pushed back that far so Uncle Steve could participate.  Darn that sweeps month of November)  

It was a busy week at the mission office - zone conferences were Tuesday through Friday throughout the state.  Steve has to attend all of them.  I went to the one in Cottonwood on Tuesday.  It is pretty up in that part of the state. 





After lunch, there is always a group game and this day, they had a balloon popping competition.  Each person tied a balloon to their leg and other people had to try and pop it.  Mine was popped farily early, thank goodness.  I don't have the energy to dash around any more.






Another big event at the office was that we acquired four of the 155+ missionaries that were evacuated from the Puerto Rico mission.  They arrived Wednesday afternoon with just the clothes on their backs!  So, the wives of the mission presidency busied themselves taking them shopping.  We in the office got to meet them on Thursday - four great young men who didn't seem terribly traumatized, thankfully.  All are Spanish speakers so they will be a great asset to our mission. 

General Conference this weekend has been wonderful.  Quiet, calm days doing needlework and absorbing all the messages - feeling the Spirit. 

Temperatures are in the 70's overnight - I guess that means it is autumn in Phoenix

We have actually opened windows up for the last two nights!  It feels so nice.  It actually got cool enough this morning that the heater kicked on!  Oops.....had to quickly turn it off.   I haven't really made the time to learn our thermostat because this house is not ours and it is so weird to live in a home again which we do not own.  And to have our landlord be the church!  FM (Facilities Maintenance) are the "apartment managers".  They will change out the HVAC filters - which is a good thing because I have NO IDEA where the inner unit is located.  They say it is in the attic.  Because it is tithing dollars paying for the utilities, I feel a responsibility to keep the thermostat at a reasonable temparature and to watch how much water I use.  I actually collect the shower water in a bucket as I wait for it to turn from cold to hot and then I take it out back to water the non-irrigated plants.  Of course, I would do THAT even if we did own the house because, after all, this IS a desert and water is scarce and I am a tightwad.  It is FM who we go to when we need the ants in the back yard eradicated (and the exterminator found black widows, too!!!!!  YIKES!)  or when we need a new shower head.  (we bought it but they will install it.....I just couldn't stand the thought of using the current horrible pathetic showerhead for the next two years) 

It was a pretty average week.  We did enjoy a night out on Friday with Janet and George Wells, our roughly-the-same-age-LDS-neighbors-down-the-street friends.  First we ate at Cafe Rio and then had dessert at Rita's Ices.  I got gluten contamination at Cafe Rio but that was no surprise as 90% of their menu included their gigantic made-right-in-front-of-your-eyes flour tortillas.  Wheat flour everywhere!  Rita's Ices was a delicious blend of frozen custard and Italian ices - sort of like a shave ice.

We had a quiet Saturday and I loved the Women's Broadcast in the evening.  It was earlier than back in Missouri (5:00 - 6:30) so Steve and I had time to watch "Sully" afterwards and get to bed on time.  What a good movie!

When we were in Payson a few weeks back, we visited a cute antique shop and I bought cute little ceramic bird to sit in my window and remind me of all the birds back home in Columbia.


I also bought a "grab basket" with a variety of items: a large crocheted doilie, some vintage cards, a cornhusk doll, a ceramic sugar and cream set, a cast-iron nutcracker, a grandma-type candy dish, and a cute bird/planter that I am using for kitchen scrubbies (that is my compost pot next door)

Back in the summer, I bought a saguaro cactus eraser for my desk at work.  Later, someone left their .35 cent CTR ring in the bathroom and you can see what I have done with it.  Have a great week!

new cars and frozen custard

I will start with some photos from one of our daily morning walks around our Anthem neighborhood.

Saguaro cactus are so interesting.  This one right here is probably over a hundred years old, based upon the number and length of its arms.  Wow!

The temperatures are actually starting to become tolerable.  I took this picture of our meetinghouse last Sunday on our way to choir practice.  The sky was particularly lovely that day.



Last Saturday, Steve and I drove up to Payson to spend the day with my sister Juli.  We arrived around lunch time and just puttered around the afternoon.  For dinner, we attended her ward choir opening social at the home of the choir director.



This home had to be worth over a milllion dollars.  It was very lovely and set right up against national forest land so this was our incredibly lovely view from the deck...



The Arizona Phoenix mission is receiving a whole lot more missionaries than they are returning so four brand new Toyota Corollas arrived at local dealerships for Steve to pick up and process.  Three came to a Peoria dealer just down the road about two miles.  I was recruited to help drive one of them back.  The fourth Corolla was sent to a dealership in Chandler.  Get out your Google maps, folks.  You will see that Chandler is fifty miles away from the mission office!  No one seems to know why it was sent to that particular dealership but that meant that Steve and I got to drive to Chandler on Tuesday to pick up the car.



Steve caught a quick bite at a Subway afterward but I was saving my calories for Andy's Frozen Custard - that midwestern store has now branched into Arizona!



He drove the "older" mission car back to Glendale while I drove the new Toyota.  Pretty nice car.
As new cars come in, he is processing "old" cars to be sold and I have also helped him shuttle these vehicles back and forth to a Pep Boys down the street from the mission office.  Nothing like entering a car in the middle of the day that has been closed up and in the Arizona sun!   And the upholstery always seems to be black!

I have been working for two weeks on some requested bibs for my sister Jerri.


I finished them Friday night and we delivered them yesterday, Saturday, after Steve and I attended the Mesa temple with Jerri's oldest son, Rob, and his wife Joanne.

Joanne, Rob, Steve, and Aunt Jeanne (Rob is only three years younger than me)

After the temple, we four had lunch at Culvers.  More frozen custard!  Mmmmmmm

A couple more shots of the temple.....
(Steve is so patient with all my picture taking)




We have now lived in this place in Anthem for a month and we JUST THIS PAST WEEK got mail!   Two Fridays ago, we finally received a mail key and was told our box was #2.  But, it took a few days for the USPS to realize that box 2 was now open for business and we got our first mail on Tuesday.  And it was the BEST MAIL DAY EVER!  Because we got money - a refund check from our CenturyLink and from University Hospital (I guess we overpaid from my bladder stone removal back in January).

August 29th Transfer week

Tuesday, August 29th, was the day we sent seven missionaries home after their time of service.  One went as far as Micronesia, a two-day journey with a twelve-hour layover in Honolulu.  Happily, the mission travel office in Salt Lake City contacted the Hawaii Mission and asked if office elders could pick our missionary up and let him stay in a real bed over night and return him to the airport the next morning.  And, we welcomed twenty-two (!!!!!!) new missionaries.  I got to go along and navigate while Steve drove the 12-passenger van during morning rush-hour traffic (hooray for the HOV lane).  Here are some airport photos...

Here are some of the twenty-two brand new missionaries on their way from the airport to the mission office.

On Saturday, September 2nd, Steve and I visited my sister Jerri in Mesa.  Her arms are healing well - here is how they look two months after they were burned from her fall on the super hot cement.

We visited a fun music store in downtown Mesa while we were in the neighborhood.  I am going to be teaching piano lessons to the mission president's thirteen-year-old son, Scott and I needed to find music for him.  I am also going to be teaching two cello students from our ward!!!!!  Can you believe it??????  While looking for a second cello to use for a cello duet with one of the missionaries currently serving in our ward, (Elder Smith), it was learned that I was a cello teacher and these two mothers practically got on their knees and begged me to teach their children.  Anthem, apparently, has no cello teachers.  

Anyway, back to last Saturday.  We took Jerri over to Amy and Cory's for dinner.  Atley and Camden came over with their twin girls, Sophie (left) and Ava (right).  They are about 14 months old and as adorable as can be.  

Jerri and the twins, Colby (left) and Cade.

A photo of the boys.  They are seniors in high school!  

Finally, this is how Arizona folks used to water their yards with the old-school irrigation system.  Amy and Cory' house has irrigation rights so they still get water this way.  As a little girl visiting Jerri in Mesa, I was completely fascinated by this.