Over the dam bridge...

We always joke about the dam bridge - you know, the bridge that goes over the dam at Lake Powell. It's impossible to miss if you drive through Page and Kanab on your way to Salt Lake City, or take that route from SLC to Phoenix. That's what Julie, Ava and Becca did today. While this lovely lady was driving... ...this crazy child used my camera and photographed herself and those in the car. The American Girl Dolls were very nice passengers. Scenic view . . . love the Vermilion Cliffs in the background, but really my favorite are these road-weary girls that made the long haul to visit their Mom/Grammy in Phoenix!

The Zoo with the Gunns

The first weekend of March, we went to the Phoneix Zoo and met some dear friends there. We had such a great time and I do love this family!

This is a daddy that really dotes on his little girl.

Just look right over there, Stan. See it?

I love this picture of Jack.

He was so quiet and thoughtful sitting there in the peace and quiet by the pond.

Afton was hilarious with the goats. Don'tcha just love the princess dress with the boots? She is such a girly girl! And she says I am her best friend!

Be gentle, and brush in the direction the hair grows. Each goat had its name in the collar.

Be sure to wash really good! Those goats are dirty and smelly!

What adorable kids!

Stan and Jack are all over the web.

I love this handsome little face!

Happy kids!

I'm holding up the world - ha!

Thanks for a great day, guys! Thanks for sharing your family with us!

Friday Night Fun

Saw Footloose at the Theater Works in Peoria. We took Becca and her friend, Miriam. Turns out they knew a few of the kids in the cast. This fun musical has tons of lively dancing and really great music. It was a fun Friday night date! Made me want to watch the movie again...

Jeo Hair

Back Row: Yani, Ivonne, Natalie, Monica, Odilia

Front Row: Sherry, Peggy

Friday was Crazy Hair day at the Primary School. (We share a campus with Cordova Primary School, so all of us "Office Ladies" are together, even though we work for different schools.) Monica started it all by doing the "bump" in her hair. We have a Jr. High student (well several, actually) that does her hair like this all the time. It is the current trendy look. When she saw Monica, she got all excited and told her that her hair was "super FRESH!" We all laughed so hard. Next thing I knew, Monica had set up shop in the ladies' room and everyone was sporting the "bump." It was hilarious. I called it "Jeo Hair" after the student's name, Jeovana. They all told her they were trying to look cool like her. You should have seen the parent reactions, and the student reactions! We all giggled all day long! I do love the girls I work with. They are terrific!

(No, I did not get the "bump" - just not possible with my curly hair! Oh, well...)

Relief Society Birthday

Tonight we celebrated the birthday of the Relief Society.

Mandy and Mary are filling boxes with popcorn so we can snack while we play the games.

We had a carnival atmosphere, with popcorn and games. Darci Gutman made this beautiful birthday cake:

She made a box of popcorn on the top. It looked so real! She made the popcorn out of marshmallows and painted them with food coloring. (Sarah, have you ever done this? Maybe you can use this idea for one of your fantastic creations!)

We played some fun games, and of course, my team won! Ha, ha, Cyndee! (My dear friend that is as competitive as I am.)

A very fun night, and it is always so uplifting to be with these amazing ladies.

We miss those of you who did not come! You missed a great time!

I love you all!

Suns Fun!

A nice friend from work gave me a couple of tickets to the Suns game last night. We decided "what the heck" and went to the game. It was so much fun! Thank goodness for the big electronic scoreboard with the screen. That is really how we could see the game at all. It was so colorful and the lights flash different colors with each advertisement. It is hard not to look at it - rather distracting - if you really want to watch the game you sort of have to block it out. Our seats were in the nose-bleed section only third row from the very top. The atmosphere was electric, and it buzzed clear up to where we were sitting. Here is the little blimp that flew around the upper deck. It was below us! ha ha The Suns Fans are obnoxious, the vendors are annoying, and the players are amazing! It was fun do to something out of the ordinary on an ordinary week night. Thanks, Jeanne!

Valentine's Day Posies

Thanks for the beautiful roses, Rod! They are gorgeous, and they smell wonderful, too! I can smell them as soon as I walk into the room. My husband was so sweet and gave me these exquisite flowers on Saturday for Valentine's Day. That way I could enjoy them all weekend!

A Hard Month

January was a hard month. It seems I don't post when things are hard. But life is not always easy and there are lessons to be learned from the adversities. Many of my grandchildren had serious injuries, and my heart has been with them. It is hard for me to be so far away when my dear ones are injured and I cannot be there to offer my support and comfort to them. And I know my daughter hurts with her children so I have worried about her, too.

My other daughter has struggled with career and education decisions, so I have worried about her and what the future has in store for her. She is an amazing woman, working hard to make a life for her and her daughter.

I have had challenges at work. Many tears have been shed, and I have been looking for a new job. I don't know that a new job is really the answer - many times the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, but then we discover that it is manure - sometimes DEEP manure - that makes the grass greener. Right now I am sticking it out. I have always loved my current job. I just don't like the way that many of the people there are being treated. When they hurt, I hurt. That is part of loving others. I am blessed with the ability to love others, and sometimes that can be very painful. However, it mostly brings joy - so giving the love away is definitely worth it.

Becca and I made our favorite Special K Candy one night. It was fun to be in the kitchen with her and make this addicting and delicious treat!

We also got to have dinner one night at Carlos and Lucy's house with Hector, Tricia, and sweet baby Elijah. When I hold this little boy, my spirit soars. He is so cute and cuddly! Thank you to the Maravillas for sharing their precious little boy with us! We love you! I always love to hear Carlos play and sing. He is so very talented and I feel privileged when we get to have our own exclusive performances! Thanks for a relaxing evening with wonderful food and dear friends!

A Nice Reprieve

After the disaster with Christmas brunch, Sam and Trudy took us away for a drive later in the afternoon. We went down to South Mountain. It was such a beautiful day! We enjoyed the view of Phoenix and the beauty of the mountain.

Rod and Sam are using the big Bronze Compass to point to different land marks off in the distance.

Here is a close up of the Bronze.And a close up of some of the diagrams on the Bronze. It was pretty cool.

Ahwatukee.

The wind sock showed a nice southeast wind. It was pretty chilly, actually.

The radio towers.

Smile for the birdie! (what does that mean, anyway?)

Merry Christmas, Rod. I love you! You have been such a marvelous gift in my life!

Thanks, Sam and Trudy, for such a nice and relaxing afternoon and evening. Trudy even took us home and made us a wonderful dinner! We are so blessed to have many wonderful friends!

Christmas Brunch Disaster

As is tradition, I invited like 23 people for Christmas brunch at 11. It is something I love to do! Especially if the people don't happen to have family around. I truly wish I could invite more, but there is only so much space in my house! The traditional menu is breakfast burritos and biscuits and gravy. We got up and started cooking at 9 AM. I did 4 pounds of hash browns - done up just right. I put them in the oven to stay warm. Got the bacon in the oven to heat up, and got the biscuits baking, too. We had a crock pot full of gravy heating up. Rod was browning the sausage and I was cracking eggs into a bowl - I had put the hash browns in my huge glass Pyrex casserole pan, covered it with foil to stay warm, and set it on the stove so I could bake the biscuits in the oven. I turned on a burner to heat a pan to scramble the eggs. As Rod was doing the sausage, there was this HUGE explosion! There was glass everywhere! I had turned on the WRONG burner and the Pyrex casserole full of hash browns exploded from the direct heat of the burner. It was a disaster! Just 15 minutes before 11, and the first guests were arriving!

Rod hurried to the store to buy more hash browns and Allen and Nick helped me clean up this awful mess! And I mean it was awful! Just picture 4 pounds of steaming hot hash browns totally infused with shattered Pyrex glass sitting on top of a hot burner. Yikes! I didn't know where to begin. First I turned off the burner (duh). I grabbed a broom and dust pan. Allen started looking for some insulated gloves, and ended up with our good hot pot holder mittens that Rod uses with the sun ovens. They worked great! He scooped the hot mass into the trash can. Really, there was glass all over that kitchen! In places you wouldn't even think of. Nick and Allen scooped and swept and wiped. They used Clorox clean up cloths, which were actually quite a good magnet for all of the little glass shards stuck all over. During the clean up, I punctured one finger with glass, and burned the top of my left hand with hot potatoes.

When Rod got back, we decided not to do the breakfast burritos - it was just too stressful to try to cook 4 more pounds of potatoes and no sausage. We decided not to use the sausage as there were little glass shards all over the kitchen and we felt it would not be safe as the sausage was right next to the exploding pan. We did not want to endanger anyone from our food being infused with glass pieces! We ended up serving biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon and fresh squeezed orange juice (thank you to Rondaleen for many bags of fresh oranges!). There was plenty of food, too. I do have some pretty good blisters on a couple of my fingers (can't wear my wedding ring for a while), but I know the burns will heal up just fine.

Thank you so much, Nick, Allen, and Rod. I don't know what I would have done without you! You were all so helpful and supportive. I love you all! I was so shaken and stressed that I didn't even take any pictures! But my wonderful guys were there to help me through it. And the stress really was unnecessary, though very real to me.

So that is my Christmas Brunch Disaster. I'm sure we will laugh about it in years to come, but it was rather stressful (as I mentioned) as it happened! Lots of the people came, and they didn't seem to mind that we had no breakfast burritos! They all had plenty to eat and there was much friendly visiting and conversation. I'm so thankful that we have many wonderful friends and neighbors that would grace our home on Christmas Morning.

A Very Special Night

Tonight was a very special night. My dear friend (on the right), Donna, was finally baptized! She has been attending with us for several years. Her neighbor, and another dear friend (on the left) Shillene, has been talking to her about the gospel for years. Shillene has been bringing Donna and her girls to church and to activities during all this time. She is an amazing member-missionary. Donna's daughters, Jamie and Tiffany, were baptized this past fall. They were so happy to see their mom baptized tonight. President Perkins performed the baptism. He was Bishop when Donna first started coming to our ward. It was an amazing baptismal service, and long awaited! I am so excited for Donna and will cherish her friendship always. She has an amazing testimony of the Savior, and of Joseph Smith and the restoration. I know she will influence many people for good. She was an amazing missionary even before she was able to get baptized herself!

Congratulations, Donna! We love you!

An Early Merry Christmas!

We opened our Christmas presents a week early because Becca will not be with us for Christmas this year. We had quite an enjoyable morning with Becca and Nick. They are still kids...

What's in the stockings?

Ah! The traditional Christmas pajamas!

Just what she wanted, a little Cannon digital.

Thanks, Katie!

Thanks, Julie!

It's funny how socks and underwear are quite exciting when you are older... Shoes, and Jeans, too!

Nick got himself this amazing little helicopter. I told him if he would wait, that Santa would bring it to him, but he wanted it NOW!

We had such a fun morning! Merry Christmas, Becca and Nick!