August randomness

School started this past week so that meant seminary did, too.  The classroom turned out perfectly

....with one rather large hitch.  For some reason, the air conditioning doesn't work well in the new room.  They put duct work into the garage portion - they actually put in a larger air conditioner to handle the larger load but the room stays quite warm.  Brother Loveless, the teacher, has to crank the thermostat down to 67 degrees and open the privacy door that was installed between the classroom and our part of the house to make the room comfortable.  Only it makes US very uncomfortable.  Our part of the house is just freezing and with the door open, there is no privacy as we go about our morning routine.  The problem has been reported so they are "working on it".  A couple of other glitches popped up at the house this past week.  The garbage disposal has stopped working.   And, we came home Friday to water streaming out of the irrigation hoses in both the front and back yard.  Can you see the tiny black hose?  

The box that controls the irrigation cycles also looked like this

It didn't look like that Friday morning.  We have no idea what went on during that day but the end result was a box pulled off of the house and uncontrolled watering.  We left for Tucson Friday night and by the time we returned on Saturday, the water was off but the box was not fixed.

The Tucson trip was to visit with Neal and Clair Lambson again (we stayed at their apartment Friday night) and on Saturday, we attended the temple together along with Jim and Karen Ravert.  We knew Jim Ravert back in our BYU married student days.  He was married to Patty at the time.  Since then, he divorced her and he met Karen and they live in Tucson and they work as a Church service missionary in the Tucson Mission Office with Neal and Clair.  It was so great to see him again.  One of the main reasons to go to Tucson this time was to visit a miniature museum after lunch and the temple but we ended up going over to Jim and Karen's instead to learn about some pretty cool family history programs.  We'll hopefully get to the museum sometime before we leave next summer....

Neal, Clair, Karen, Jim, Steve, me at the Tucson temple

Speaking of missionaries, this is what Steve's part of the office looks like nowadays.  

Bikes everywhere.  New bikes waiting to be assembled for newly arrived missionaries, bikes packed up waiting to be shipped home to leaving missionaries.  Bikes waiting to be picked up for missionaries newly assigned to bike areas.  Bikes needing to be repaired.  They have even spilled over into our back patio!

Two of these are ours, but the rest belong to missionaries who have recently gone home and are supposed to be returning to visit the mission and pick up their bikes.  Our spare room has even more missionary stuff to be retrieved. 

This all belongs to Elder Hogenson.  Can you tell that there are TWO violins!  And he doesn't even really play violin!  A church member gave him one of the violins.  It was in an unplayable condition but he fixed it up.  And, he bought another inexpensive one off of Amazon.  He is teaching himself to play.  Those are all of his books that he couldn't fit into his suitcase. (shades of Steve at the end of his mission.  He had to ship home several boxes of books that he'd bought while on his mission)  He and his parents are coming the end of August to pick everything up (one of the bikes is his). 

Other mission office happenings:  Elder Wall turned 19 on Friday and we had a carry-in to celebrate.  Poulsons brought taco salad and I made a chocolate pie (gluten free crust, of course).  And, I helped Steve get this brand new Nissan Rogue. 


I had a doctor appointment on Thursday to follow-up on my blood work.  I am happy to report that my cholesterol level is below 200 for the first time in years.  And, my A1C was just one point higher than "normal".  Yay for me. 

I finally called "uncle" with my vegetable garden and pulled everything up.  This is what the cherry tomato plant looked like

And this was the harvest I got every other week or so...

It was pathetic.  Not worth my time or the water.  GONE!

The basil, on the other hand, was thriving but I just couldn't justify the water so I harvested all the leaves and it is gone, too.

Speaking of plants,  This is what a prickly pear fruit looks like.  

And I will close with some photos from the week:  a beautiful monsoon-created sunset, a hot air balloon over Anthem, and the sage in bloom in front of our house.

It's August!

Here is a photo of our house I took on our Friday morning walk....

On our Monday morning walk, I found a semi-ripened saguaro fruit on the ground so I took it home and cut it open.  Isn't it fascinating inside?  I don't know when the optimum time is to harvest a saguaro fruit.  And, I did learn that, like the cactus, the fruit is protected meaning you have to get a permit to pick it.  I hope fallen fruit doesn't fit into that category!

Monday night, we had a huge monsoon storm blow through and it took down the outdoor curtain on our back patio.  We are lucky it didn't take down any trees in our yard.  It sure wreaked havoc on a lot of other trees in the valley, though. 

This past week was a Transfer Week.  We sent 20 missionaries home on Tuesday morning (one went back to Mongolia and another to Tahiti) and we welcomed 23 missionaries later that afternoon.  This was our largest incoming group yet and they barely fit into the conference room for in-processing.  One sister is a visa-waiter.  She will ultimately go to the Philippines to serve her mission.  Two missionaries were returning - they had gone home for assorted reasons and were coming back to finish their mission.  And the other twenty were newbies.  Transfer week is always a shuffle-up-the-mission time what with closing or consolidating areas or opening new areas.  Steve and Elder Poulson, the housing coordinator have to scurry around to accommodate all these changes.  Missionaries needing bikes, new TiWi cards, cars being shuffled around the mission, apartments being closed or opened, missionaries needing beds and other furniture.  And, very importantly - keeping the supply closet stocked because the office is a flurry of missionaries all week.  Those who don't get to come very often because they serve in far-away areas like Flagstaff, Prescott, and even Buckeye come in and restock.  Transfer weeks are always a little crazy...

But, Steve and I did get to relax some.  We went to the mission home Wednesday evening to socialize at a Shake and Bake (President makes shakes, everyone brings baked goods).  We watched "The Natural" on Prime Friday night.  We visited the Musical Instrument Museum yesterday afternoon.  

I have never seen so many old and new instruments in all my life!  We were there for three and a half hours and only got to half of the museum.  Our poor bodies couldn't handle walking around the rest.  Below is a photo for my Harry Potter kids...

And here is Steve standing by the octobass.  (and he thought hauling my bass was a pain!)

And the heat goes on....

This week has been particularly hot. One day, it hit 115.

The seminary classroom is finished!  Here are the final photos.  We are going to miss the nice general contractor, Bob, who reminded us a little of our now deceased friend Bob Eschrich.  Just give him a few more inches and he would be even more like him.   Now all the room needs is furniture (oh, please, put in a real piano!) and students.  School starts on August 7th so it won't be long, now....

We've enjoyed some dramatic skies again this week - and even some rain.

It amazes me that, even in Arizona's intense heat, plants will bloom!  The yellow flower is from a bush and the lavender one is from a tree.  The white flower is in our back yard.

This is my every-morning task - water the last remaining tomato plant and the basil plant.  As you can see through the net, the tomato plant is struggling.

Here we are with Elders Williams, Evans, and sisters K. Brown and Berry at Blaze Pizza.  The sisters you might recognize from several blogs back when they helped us transport some new vehicles off the car lot to the mission office.  They were back in the office last Tuesday and when they learned that I had forgotten my lunch at home, they suggested Blaze Pizza since that's where they were going with a bogo coupon.  Steve and I wanted to take Elders Williams and Evans out anyway since Elder Williams has been our new bike repair missionary and he is returning home on July 31st.  Blaze offers a gluten-free crust.  It was pretty good and it was so fun to share a meal with these missionaries.

Speaking of eating out, Steve and I had Culver's coupons so that was our Friday night date, along with going to the temple.  

Saturday was a senior zone conference down in Phoenix.  I was asked to put together a musical number and I knew just what I would do - Rob Gardner's arrangement of  Savior Redeemer of my Soul.  Elder Fawson is an excellent violinist and Sister Garrick has a nice, innocent voice and I played piano.  It is mostly in the key of E (4 sharps!) so I practiced my part as much as possible on the piano at the mission office.  There is a piano there because, when President and Sister Collins arrived, they brought their own baby grand to the mission home and they had the existing piano moved to the mission office.  It comes in very handy for Monday office meetings and giving Scott Collins piano lessons.  But, it cannot be played on Tuesdays and Thursdays when a certain part-time Family Services counselor is working because she won't put up with the "noise".  And, of course, I DO have mission office duties all week so I couldn't do unlimited practice.  Happily, we all three did a decent job at the performance.  

This morning, I woke up at 6:30 to a text message from Amy Ellsworth inviting us to Cade and Colby's missionary farewell today..... at 8:30am!  So, we scurried around (a la Home Alone) and made it just in time.  SOOO glad we made the effort.  Jerri was there, Rob and Joanne, Emily and Brig and family, and, of course Atley and Camden and the twins since it is also their ward.  The boys talks were just wonderful.  They will be serving three days a week from noon to 4:00 in the Records Operations Center in downtown Mesa.  The center supports Family Search and prepares images for indexing and publication.  A perfect mission for them! 

July 16th through the 21st

It is hot, even in the early morning.  Only the air conditioned home, car, and mission office make it bearable.  And, thankfully, July pushes on....

It was particularly quiet at the mission office this week and I was able to start a new family history project.  For the last 14 years of his life, my grandfather Young kept a daily diary.  I am not sure they even make them now but, back then, they had Five-Year Diaries.  They were small - about 4 X 5 inches - and each page at the date of the year.  But, the page was divided down into five sections, one for each of five years.  So, each year, you wrote about that particular day in one of the sections.  Ultimately, each page had five different years worth of accounts written in each of the five sections:

January 1, 1950
January 1, 1951
January 1, 1952
January 1, 1953
January 1, 1954

I started transcribing the year 1950's diary entries.  It is easy because the entries are obviously short.  It is hard because my grandfather's handwriting is in the old-fashioned style of cursive and because his spelling was not always the best and because he sometimes abbreviated words to save space.  Thank goodness for magnifying glasses!  He was born in 1883 so by the time he is writing, he is 67.  And, he is still working his small farm!  Amazing.

The mission acquired two new vehicles this past week - another Toyota Tacoma and a Chevy Silverado.  I got to help Steve bring them back to the mission office.  The Chevy dealer was almost to downtown Phoenix and on my way back, I checked out a bakery that specializes in gluten-free.  I bought a cinnamon roll to eat for Saturday breakfast.  It was yummmmm. 

A woman came into the building this past week with this adorable little dog named Daisy.  She is a Chug (Chihuahua and Pug mix).  I got to hold this sweet little critter and it made my day!


Friday night, Steve and I watched the 1964 movie The Great Escape.  We know this movie but it was fun to watch it again.

Saturday, after Noah's piano lesson and going to the temple, the plan was to visit the Musical Instrument Museum after lunch.  Then, while visiting with a group of four missionaries - Elders Hinckley, Karl, De La Cruz, and Perry - during the week, they somehow ended up being invited to our place for dinner Saturday evening.  They had heard about my homemade onion rings.  They had a big bag of charcoal just sitting in their apartment.  So a feast of grilled burgers and brauts, watermelon, corn on the cob, onion rings, potato salad, and ice cream was planned and we still hoped to visit the MIM.  Then, Saturday morning, they called to ask if we could bump the dinner to 4:00 so they could attend a baptism.  OK.  We'll just move the MIM visit to August.  And, with that taken out of the picture, I had one of the most relaxing Saturdays ever!  I even found myself with nothing to do.  (that hardly ever happens)  I took a nap without setting an alarm. I finished a watercolor project.  I practiced.  I sewed.  I watched the Brendan Fraser version of Journey to the Center of the Earth.  We watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day concert.  The dinner went perfectly and we have leftovers!!

We haven't had quit the rain we got last week but, in true monsoon form, the skies regularly have huge billowing cumulus clouds.  This was Thursday evening over Daisy Mountain in Anthem. 

This is desert sage.  It blooms in the dead of summer.  Stunning!

So, even amidst the oppressive heat of summer, there is still beauty.

Monsoon season has finally arrived!!!

Every day last week, there were billowing white and gray clouds somewhere in the Arizona sky.  And rain has fallen.  Arizona monsoons are often quite violent and this is what we encountered on our Tuesday morning bike ride.  A palo verde tree completely uprooted.  

Folks around here complain about the humidity brought on by the monsoons - 35%!  Poor babies.  All I can say is I hope they never have to live in Missouri with 85% humidity.   I can remember when I was a girl visiting my sister, Jerri, and her family who lived in Mesa.  The typical type of air conditioning at that time in the Phoenix valley was the swamp cooler based upon the evaporation principle: a fan blowing air over a water saturated pad.  As you can imagine, THAT didn't help much during the monsoons and I recall laying on the couch right under the air conditioning vent and still feeling miserably hot and sticky.

We now have two senior sister missionaries serving in the mission - Sisters Jones and Ziegler.  They came to the office Friday morning just as our regular start-of-the-day devotional began.  They took our photo and joined us for the spiritual thought and prayer.  That is Elder Wall on the right.  

My music teaching has eased up a bit this summer - Scott is not doing piano lessons at all until school begins and Erik and his family are in Nauvoo during the month of July to participate in the pageant.  All I have is Lottie.  I was a bit concerned about her cello position during Thursday's lesson so I took a photo of her and had her take a photo of me so she could compare and see what we should fix.  I'll share those photos...

In my continuing sewing endeavors I worked on a blouse for me and I have watched five of the six episodes of the BBC "Pride and Prejudice", the "Princess Bride", and the movie "Get Smart".  Steve remarked that, while "Get Smart" was appealing to all ages, that only the Boomers could really appreciate it since they grew up on the original show.  I agree.  It produced quite a few belly laughs. 

The Phoenix Temple is only about a fifteen minute drive away.  Because of it's proximity, and because of the messages given in the last General Conference about temple attendance, Steve and I are trying to attend once a week - usually on Saturdays.  I am loving it.  

4th of July

This past week was a Zone Conference week.  Steve has to attend all four but I get to select the day I will attend - which was on Tuesday this time.    It was held in Prescott Valley, about an hour and a half away and about fifteen degrees cooler!  On the day I attend, I don't go into the office.  

The Anthem community holds their 4th of July fireworks show on the 3rd of July.  Hmmmm.  We were invited to the home of Bob and Sue Hall that evening for a potluck dinner and the opportunity to view the fireworks from their back yard which provided a perfect, unobstructed view of the city park where the fireworks are launched.  Many fireworks displays were cancelled this year due to the extreme drought conditions but the Anthem park is green and well watered and they evidently sprayed down the washes (full of desert-type growth) so the fire hazard was minimum.  Temperatures at 9:30 were still pushing 100 degrees but we enjoyed a pretty spectacular show.  We even got to watch the Lake Pleasant fireworks show in the far distance.   

On the actual 4th of July, the mission office was closed so I got to stay home a second day. BUT, Zone Conferences were still held.  It's location was quite close and Steve just went long enough to make his vehicle safety presentation which is always just after lunch.  We invited our ward missionaries over for hamburgers that evening.  Because of the holiday, they were not allowed to proselyte after 6:00 so they just stayed and we played games (Spot It and dominoes).  In-between, Steve and I watched the Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers (a pre-mission tradition).  We watched The Return of the King Friday night.  And, because we had some free time Thursday night, we watched Life of Pi.  And, last night, we watched Penelope on Netflix.  Quite the movie-watching week!  

On one of our morning walks this week, I spotted this nest built in a cholla cactus.  I believe it belongs to a curve billed thrasher based on the egg color and nest shape

On that same walk I took photos of other bird nests - no eggs in them as far as I could tell.  The first one is in an ocatillo. The last three are in cholla and you can see how the birds use all kinds of materials for their construction.  They might belong to a cactus wren....

The prickly pear are now in fruit...which are also prickly!!!

This is what the tall stalk in our front yard now looks like...

My poor tomatoes are struggling with this extreme heat.  I water them every morning but the plants are not producing blossoms any longer and the tomatoes just seem to bleach rather than turn deep red.  The basil in the middle, however, is doing very well.  I think I already reported that I pulled up the squash and beans over a month ago.  They just couldn't cope with the heat and sun.

Kid's news:  

Steven and Tamara linked up with cousins Brent and Susette and their family in Nauvoo on July 4th.  The Bowdens are doing an epic church history tour and Steven and Tamara were on their way up to her brother's in Michigan for a week.

Sarah was offered a full-time, permanent job at the Ogden Nature Center!  This is what we have all been hoping and praying for.

A rather non-busy week in June

Behold the almost finished seminary classroom!  Carpet was just put down this past week.  They still need to put up lights, ceiling fans, and projector.   Plus, the bottom photo shows that the door separating the classroom from our living quarters still needs to be installed.  Between the door and the window will be storage cabinets.  It should be done soon.  

I received two gift cards to Abuelos (think Macaroni Grill for Mexican food) and we used one yesterday for lunch.  Mmmmm.  And leftovers!  We watched "Stardust" Friday night and "Walt Before Micky" last night.  Stardust is always fun.  The Disney biopic was rather slow paced  (It felt like it was made by the Hallmark channel, to tell the truth) and it was depressing!  It took so many tries before Disney became the icon we know today.  It was also strange to see John Heder in a serious role (he played Roy Disney).  I finished a book called Born on a Blue Day which is a memoir by Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant.  I have taught autistic music students so it was quite enlightening. 

That is about all the exciting happenings I can think of.  Most of the drama we experience this week was through our children.  Tamara returning from Arizona/Mexico with a horrible case of food poisoning.  Emily enduring a week without Joe and celebrating her 41st birthday with her photography website irretrievably crashing.  Elise looking into a media specialist job with Columbia Public Schools (which I really really hope she gets!).  Beckie having been called back a third time for a job with the Four Seasons Hotel (another really really hope)  and learning that she has to find a new place to live by the end of August.  and Sarah getting an interview with the Ogden Nature Center (yet another really really hope).  My gray hair got grayer this week over all this tension.

I hope to have great news next week as well as a report of our 4th of July activities.