Week of May 19-25, 2014

Monday - This will be a busy week of work! I was up early, ran, and then set out on my early morning yard work before I needed to wake Dee up. I watered my flower bed...the tall ones are the sunflowers Nate and Jess planted. I see a bud on one of them. Hopefully they will bloom. For sure, after the wedding, I am not wasting any more water on this...Too much water and heat.

I brushed the pool. It's starting to look better. Wind has been crazy this year and the pool proves this...

Saguaro cactus get lovely blossoms...that turn into nasty black things all over the ground. I bent over and picked up a ton...this is the after shot.

 Dee and I planned to clean the porch that evening. Here is the before picture...

My work for the day included washing baptismal clothing. We were at the stake center for our temple recommend interviews and checked the washing machine in the baptismal font area and found 4 outfits. We told the other baptismal coordinator couple that we had checked and had them clean...Makes for no surprises on baptism day.

I harvested new tomatoes and chopped and froze ripe ones for canning later.

I made clam chowder for dinner...

We worked on the porch...Here is the progress...

Nate contacted us...Jess was feeling a bit better but they were still staying with her parents. 

That night, us two old folks crashed in bed! 

Tuesday - Dee had to be up early for meetings. I had much to do, so I hung the curtains we found at a yard sale Saturday...

 I did a TON of shopping for the reception. Blue tape = don't eat...

Once Dee got done with work, we set out to finish. We had five sets of curtains and rods. Dee had the brilliant idea of separating one set so that we would have covers on each end. He and his brain have been EPIC!!! 

I had purchased these lights at a yard sale (From Deborah Packer Erickson - the girl Ethan asked to marry him in kindergarten) a month or so ago. From Lorrie Hudson's idea, I wired three strings to the inside of the curtains.

While I was wiring up the lights, Dee told me to come inside the house. I climbed off the chair I was perched on and who had arrived at our house???

Yep...Morgan! So glad we didn't let him know Nate and Jess were already married or he wouldn't have come too. Dee had chicken on the grill, so Morgan enjoyed a great dinner.

Dee went home teaching...and I had time, so I baked our whole wheat bread.

I also made one more loaf, with dried basil and parmesan cheese in it, as a try...the flavors were faint but Dee liked it toasted with one of his tomatoes on it.

Wednesday - Amber and Doran needed help because Kooper's regular sitter was going to attend a high school graduation, so he arrived with Daddy at 6:30 am. We had a good time, and my visiting teachers and Nano had a blast with him.

Our new home teacher came for a visit. Home teaching is a program where two men are assigned families to watch over and visit each month. If you need anything, the first person you call is your home teacher (when family can't help). They also bring a message. He didn't know us, or our family, but he the message he brought was so inspired. This month, a talk from LDS general conference is shared; any one they select. He chose the talk by Elder Craig Zwick entitiled "What Are You Thinking?" https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/what-are-you-thinking?lang=eng. It was so perfect for things that have been happening, questions, feelings among members of our family. I am so thankful for a great home teacher who helped me put things in a better perspective!

Thursday - Dee found out late last night that he has to spend the next two afternoons at a Kaizen Seminar at the Tempe Honeywell plant.

pppppth!

Sometimes, I hate Honeywell.

All of a sudden, it was noon and I was still in my exercise clothing. (I did get to do all of my exercises, though. I spent time laundering, hauling stuff in the hard, Lorrie Hudson called and shared what she has gotten prepped for the reception and we planned when we would get together to decorate, etc. Sharynn called and gave me some great and cheap ideas for cupcake towers...if they have not made anything yet. I worked on cooking my tomato sauce to make lasagna tonight...gets lots of stuff out of the fridge so it's great.

I readied for my day tomorrow getting all the cupcakes baked and cooled...and frozen. My recipe uses a cake mix for a base, and then you doctor it to make pretty awesome cupcakes. So, I put all the dry ingredients, cake mix, flour, sugar, and salt, in ziploc bags.

 As a good Grammy, I saved the Box Tops to distribute among my grandkids who attend schools that collect these.

 It was crazy , but I got many (turned out to be too many) white and chocolate mixes ready.

 That mess was cleaned up, and I finished my lasagna preparation.

During this, I received a text from Nathan, who said to watch the evening TV3 news, as he and Jess had been interviewed about a new forest fire that had started where they were. The 4:30 pm newscast actually interviewed them! (Pictures of the television in our family room)

Funny thing...they were introduced by the newscaster as Nathan and Jessica Rice, honeymooning at Woods Canyon Lake...who let the cat out of the bag there! And they caught a fish as the newscast watched!...the first of 4

We ran over to Dorrie's to borrow some glass platters for a cupcake tower idea I had...We were greeted by her new sheep: Mama and (we can't remember...honey, sweetie, etc.)

When we got home, Morgan was packing up his motorcycle. He wanted to go and camp near the Sedona fire, so off he went.

Friday: Operation Cupcake is on...

First, I had glasses with 4 egg whites, vanilla and almond extract and 2 Tbsp canola oil.

 Two cupcake pans per ovenload this time (for Doran and Amber's, I could only do one at a time, since my old oven was not evenly heating.)

 I put the cake mix bag, whirred it a bit, added 1 cup sour cream, 1 1/3 cup water, and the glass of egg stuff and mixed for 2 minutes.

 I used an icing bag with a special adapter and filled the cupcake holders...2/3 full...and off I went. Here is the first of many many batches!

7 hours later, they were baked and cooling. I headed to Costco and got pans and heavy duty foil...and then I wrapped in foil and then plastic wrap and labeled either chocolate or vanilla and loaded the freezer up. Two hours later, that was done....and so was I.

Jessica's mom and grandma came by for a final pow wow of plans for the next few days. 

Saturday: Yard sales, where I got some cute little things for my play baskets, and Dee got some more Magnetix toys, for the older grandkids to enjoy. We then worked for hours in the yard: trimming, hauling, cutting, mowing, covering, uncovering. Nate and Jess stopped in on the way back from their honeymoon...opened a couple of gifts that had come...and went to stay with Jessica's parents. Jessica was having ear troubles from the change in altitude as they came home. While she napped at her parent's house, Nate came back to change the oil in their car. Dad and I were sitting out in the gazebo, simply dead. We received a call from Kayty and needed to take some stuff to her for a White Trash party she was invited to. As we came back, Dee got a text from Morgan that he was in Wickenburg, on his way back after staying with Allison. He ended up getting here after I was unconscious. 

Sunday - First thing: Dee caught another thief: a squirrel! 

We relocated it to Las Brisas playground on the way to church.

Sundays have truly been a treasured day of rest. I love going: hearing the music, partaking of the Sacrament and remembering the covenant I made when I was baptized, going over my week and repenting of things, and rededicating my life to my Savior. The talks were amazing...like they were just for me! Sunday School, Relief Society were also just as uplifting, and my singing with the nursery kids was a blast, as always. 

After church, Dee felt he needed some of his favorite 'penicillin", since this cold he has is kicking him...

menudo, full of garlic, lime juice, and cilantro.

We spent our afternoon quietly. I finished siliconing the cupcake towers together and put them in the living room to sit for 24 hours. 

Cam texted later, asking if they could stop by for a visit. We walked outside and Kaylee showed Mommy and Daddy what we do all week. Nate and Jess stopped in and Kaylee helped open a wedding gift.

 Nate had invited brothers and others to help work on his truck on Monday, so he made cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next day.

It has been a long, long week. Just a few more days and we will be finished with this wedding, and give Nate and Jess a great start on their life and eternity.