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.