Week of May 25 - May 31, 2015

Highlights:

Spiritual:
On Saturday, May 30, Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles passed away after a very brief cancer diagnosis. I remember just in April, I looked up just how old he was, because he was so vibrant, alive and full of the Spirit and he spoke with the power of God. He was 92 and you would never have known it! While sad that he will no longer be sharing an earthly testimony with us, I know the heavens are rejoicing!


Our temple is still on shut down, so we used the time to do extra things: yard work, garden work, and Dad did truck work.

I began and completed my reading of the June Ensign Magazine, and now will return to the Book of Mormon and Alma. Dad is also reading the Book of Mormon, and is in 3rd Nephi chapter 15. Our wonderful bishop started a new goal for the road to read the Book of Mormon every day. I was helping in primary when he shared the new ward goal, gave each child a calendar, and offered them a treat if they read every day. For the adults, we have a place to write thoughts, etc. and no candy is involved. :( It's wonderful to have a goal as a ward to work toward. We love Bishop Edwards!!

Dad and I have a baptism next week, so I got the information from our high councilman, Brother Whiting, and composed the list for Dad to make calls and let the parents know what to bring and when to arrive. I will type the program this week...and do lots of laundry next Saturday.

I didn't have time in the evenings this week to index, so it was only what I could do on Sunday. I have indexed over 2266 names. 

Family:

The Wilkins Family
The Wilkins are having a splendid week, with many wonderful things happening in their family!
Grace was awarded Owl Of The Year for her class!
 

Her teacher selected her because she is always ready to learn, is always happy and smiling and loves to give! She also played a piano solo in the school talent show. We heard Adam's piano piece for the talent show when we were in Las Vegas, so surely he participated too! Great piano playing, Adam and Grace!

Josh graduated from preschool too!

And Sammy says "mom"...and growls quite fiercely!
 

And Happy Birthday Mike!!! Hope your day was as splendid as you are!!!

The Ethan Rice Family
Cameo had to work Monday, and Ethan and Kaylee came over mid afternoon for a swim until Mommy got off work. On Wednesday after work, we were treated to an awesome dinner at the Pizza Restaurant Ethan delivers for. It is family night, so Kaylee ate sketti with meatballs, chocolate milk, and an ice cream sundae for free, and Dad and I each had a great salad. The highlight was the pizza! I ate a few bites...at it was HEAVEN! I have GOT to figure out how they make their dough. It was amazing. Thank you so much, Ethan and Cameo!!

The Doran Rice Family
Doran and Amber and family stopped by for a little on Monday on their way to the Splash Pad for a picnic with some friends.

They had a busy week, and Kooper spent time enjoying the back porch on Saturday evening...

...and spent Sunday with Granny Dorrie while Mom, Dad and Kelsie were serving at a pet adoption event. 

Morgan
No news from Morgan, but he keeps busy with side jobs.

Kayty
Kayty had a good week at work, attended a rather disappointing Comic-Con, and read and watched "Friends" reruns in the evening. She was going to go to Wet n Wild on her day off, but decided relaxing on the couch was much better.


The Nathan Rice Family
Nate and Jess are both super busy working and homeworking. Nate stopped by for a bit...and said, "I'll see you in four weeks!" as he left. He is doing well, and is keeping up, even while working 38 hours this week! Jessica is further along in her studies, so the work is getting tough!

Semester ends in four weeks! And I am sure both will breathe a huge sigh of relief, though only a brief sigh!


Work
Dad is kind of transitioning from the direction of the former vice president to the new vice president. He seems satisfied that the teams he has been working with are on the right track, and now he will work more with the Sky Harbor Phoenix Engines Facility. He already has visited and reported on things that aren't being done in the Czech Republic. He is looking forward to this interesting assignment.

Kaylee and I had an abbreviated bug week. She colored,

squeezed orange juice

used colored pencils, and glitter paint,

played with playdough, and bug finger puppets,

watercolored

glued

matched and classified

collected bugs

washed dishes

and played in the pool, in the sand, in the flower bed, and in the grape gazebo

Dad's Garden
The garden is going crazy! Lots of tomatoes. I spend at least a half hour every morning searching and harvesting.

This week, I picked at least 40 tomatoes every day. And, mind you, these are good sized tomatoes!

I got this oregano and just left it on a cookie sheet in the oven without it on.

 On Friday, I got the tomatoes ready and Dad put them in the pizza oven to roast. Early Saturday morning, I ran them thru the strainer and got the most awesome sauce.

Zucchini...I used one to make zucchini muffins for breakfast Wednesday.

Our first spaghetti squash which made some pretty good and healthy "pasta" for Friday dinner

Trinidad scorpion peppers...which Dad spent time cutting and readying for dehydrating

Grapes are looking good, but we are not sure which varieties are doing well, since the vines kind of do what they want. Some of the grapes have been nasty in the past!

 Tomato count for this week: 953

Dad's Truck
He worked his tail off this week: doors, steering wheels, 

 and even worked selling some parts to try to make money to get his grill chromed.

He sands and brushes and Bondo-s. He also worked on fabricating parts for his steering column. He cut and had his friend, Joe Terrell - who sold him this project-that-has-taken-way-too-long-and-would-never-have-been-started-if-we-knew-it-would-be-like-this, weld up something and then he grit blasted it and painted it shiney gold. It, too, will go under the hood, so men can stop and admire and women can try to figure out why.

Nate came over and totally got the door locks ready...took him quite awhile, but now Dad's doors will lock! 

Other highlights
 Cameo let me know last Sunday morning that Ethan had Memorial Day off, so I had a day off. What an absolute treasure to have a day WITHOUT a list of things to do!!! I woke up very early (note to self: make sure Sunday Chocolate Cheat Day ends earlier. I fell asleep fine, but all that chocolate so late in the evening made me wake up at 3:15 am with  the jitters!) I jogged...in a jacket...ON MEMORIAL DAY...(I know Phoenix will remember the typical temperatures and turn on the heat soon, but this was so nice!!!). Dad and I didn't hike as we thought we would, since he couldn't get to sleep.

Our neighbors have been getting rid of some good stuff. Les put this HUGE roll of bubble wrap out, and Kaylee had a blast running on it...and it will come in handy when Dad needs to package the stuff he is selling on Ebay

Next door, the house being built put in a TON of new lawn (I don't know if someone wants THAT much lawn to pay to water and have taken care of) and they had these extra rolls that were put in the chicken pen for them to have a treat.

Our Argentinian Giant Cactus bloomed this week. It blooms at night, only one or two nights, and you have to pay attention to catch it.

We made dinner for a new mom and dad in our ward, the Bluths, who just had their first baby girl. Dad grilled his half chicken, squeezed fresh orange juice, and grilled some zucchini, while I put together a salad with some fresh tomatoes and fresh cucumber. When SignUp Genius comes around, it is usually hard to be able to help someone, especially when we are busy working, but this time, it worked out!

Not so highlights
 On Monday, Dad looked out back at the hill and said, "Is that saguaro cactus leaning?" I didn't think so. On Wednesday morning, I looked at the hill, and it had fallen over!

It seems that the hole birds pecked in it let bugs and rot get going and, even though it looked fine on the outside, it was rotten, and the base couldn't support it. It is a good lesson for all of us to be mindful that those little things: habits, resentments, mistakes; don't get in or we too will fall.

As for now, Dad said he will saw it in pieces and put a piece in the trashcan each week, since our quarterly trash pickup happened the day before!

Phoenix remembered that it is Phoenix, and the heat is on! Saturday and Sunday it was 104 to 106 degrees. We went out late Saturday night and put shade coverings over the squash, cucumbers, herbs, and tomatoes. 

Week of May 18 - 24, 2015

Highlights:

Spiritual
The Phoenix Temple is on their semi-annual two week shut down, so I just stop and look through the gates on my jogs. Dave Simonson, our friend and ward member, was an official photographer for church construction and he published these on Facebook...

 



Our home teachers, one of whom is now our bishop, came by and we had a wonderful visit. He shared stories of the ward father son campout and how prayers were answered over and over as people were freed from being stuck in the mud. (It rained and snowed last weekend) He also shared with us his inspiration for a goal for our ward members to work on this year. He and the members of the ward council had offered prayer and asked for inspiration, and with all the great things that were suggested, the one thing that would help all is improving scripture study, so that is what our ward will be working on. Bishop Edwards is a great leader and we are so thankful for his inspiration!

I finished my visiting teaching via letters this week, as we were assigned a brand new sister, who no one has seen or knows about. My visiting teacher came and we had a wonderful visit! I went home teaching with Dad on Sunday evening and had a great visit with the Burrows family. On Sunday, I also substituted for one of the teachers in the CTR five class. It was a wonderful chance to help out, even though wrestling twin boys who have a very difficult time concentrating was no simple effort.


In my scripture reading, I am now in the Book of Mormon and am now starting Alma . I so enjoy reading the Book of Mormon. After reading the Old Testament, the Book of Mormon is SO much easier to understand! Dad is also reading the Book of Mormon every evening.

I indexed during a few afternoons this week and have indexed  over 2200 records so far.

Family:

The Wilkins Family
The earth truly moved under their feet as they felt an earthquake on Friday!Adam's play at school was a smashing success. Adam posted some of it on Facebook and it was wonderful to see him try something new. He looked like he was having such a great time! He was a great participant in the musical numbers and did a superb job! Adam, we are so very proud of you!!! And Allison, the costumes you made were beautiful!

The Ethan Rice Family
Had a busy week, and Thursday, Kaylee started the day with a cough and a fever, and ended it with throwing up over and over. Nasty Spring virus! Cameo worked as communication leader for quite a few days and finally arrived at a day that most everyone can go camping this Summer. July 17 and 18th are the selected days! They stopped by for a visit on Sunday night and we enjoyed playing visiting, especially with Ethan, who is so busy that we don't get to see him much. Kaylee had a great time at Wet and Wild and was looking forward to their Memorial Day fireworks show (which we watched on our front porch after they left). Kaylee had a gymnastics class on Saturday and had such a fun time!


The Doran Rice Family
Kelsie celebrated her final day of second grade this week. And Kooper scored at a Saturday yard sale...


Morgan Rice
Morgan stopped by on Saturday to borrow some tools from Dad. He does a lot of odd jobs and has many scheduled for the future.

Kayty Rice
Kayty had a good work week and also attended a reunion party for her former bishopric at church. She went and saw that car racing movie (has Paul somebody in it) with the tailor at work, who offers to take her to movies. She thinks he likes her...but she isn't interested at all.

The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan was blessed with extra work hours during the holiday week, plus lots of homework, so he briefly stopped by on Thursday. On Saturday, he let us know about a discounted floor model stainless steel LG microwave oven that was discounted greatly, so we ran over and got it. When next year comes and we can work on the house, this is gonna be great in my kitchen! Thanks Nate!!! He also came over for a little bit after church. School was so busy but he is keeping up well. He and Jessica had to work out a financial plan for one of her classes and they are on such a good track for the future. I am thankful for their wisdom and planning. It sure helps when life's "surprises" come up!

Work
Dad's team was making good progress on Monday, and even coming close to solving the problems. Then, late Monday, Dad's supervisor emailed him and informed him there was a new vice president in charge of his group and he might have yet another focus for them to work on! He is also taking over projects from another person on the new team that is retiring, so that required new meetings. In addition, his boss from the old job wants him to meet the suppliers of the Supplier Engineer he will take over for when this assignment is complete, since he is retiring, so he attended some of those meetings as well this week. Friday was a work day for him, but it ended up being very quiet, since many had taken the day off.

My weeks "off" are always full. I picked tomatoes every day. I started the week preparing pans of tomatoes to roast, and early Tuesday morning, I got the sauce made and bagged up to freeze.

I canned on 14 quarts on Saturday too, which nearly gives me a years' worth of jarred tomatoes. The rest will be roasted tomato herb sauce.

I also dusted, vacuumed, scrubbed kitchen cabinet doors, put a new sealer on the kitchen floor (the other one was wearing off already), had lunch with Grandma, planned Nano's birthday party with Nano and Kathy, hauled trash out to the pile for quarterly pick up, brushed the pool, took five wonderful and cool jogs and one tremendous hike in a jacket...in May!!!

Dad's Garden
It was zucchini week at our house! Monday was Zucchini Chicken Skillet, Tuesday it was Mexican Zucchini Boats, Wednesday was Zucchini Lasagna.

Dad used a potato peeler to slice the zucchini very thin, and I hid it in the layer next to the pasta.

 By Thursday, Kayty was wise to what I was doing, so I prepped Chinese Food with zucchini so Kayty would have no problem picking it out. With Dad's first cucumbers harvested, I peeled, sliced, and marinated them in a mixture of rice vinegar and spicy chili sauce (the Asian kind). People come up to me often and ask me gardening advice. I do not garden, though I am expert at finding uses for it!

So, this weeks harvest included tomatoes, zucchini, butternut squash, cucumbers, oregano, basil, oranges, lemons, ghost peppers, and habanero peppers.

No...he isn't growing iphones. He was just using it as a size comparison.

Total tomatoes harvested as of Sunday:728


Dad's Truck
His week of wonderful weather made it a pleasure to sand, prime, sand, prime, sand, prime, grit blast and paint, plus put parts on it. He worked and worked and worked on the doors, trying to get them just perfect.

The sad thing: he finally painted one door...and EVERY SINGLE little flying creature in the state of Arizona was attracted to that door! I didn't photograph it, but it looks sad. I am not sure what you do to solve that, but I am sure it involves lots of sanding!

He has also been working on his steering wheel: filling in cracks and sanding. It is ready to prime and paint. He also got the power booster finally and totally installed, as well as the gas tank inlet tube. 

Other Highlights
Grandma took me to Souper Salad for lunch on Wednesday, and to the new Smart and Final store near her house.

Nano and Kathy came by on Friday for some birthday party planning.

Dad got a call from his old friend, Cliff Eccles,  on Sunday and had a good time catching up.

The weather here has been such a treat! We just cannot believe how cool it has been!!! We are so very thankful!!!

Not So Highlights

Other than the bugs on the door, we have been blessed that difficulties have been few.