Families Are Forever

Last Sunday we had a wonderful Easter dinner at my mom's. My side of the family was there except for Nathan, Sarah, and their kids. We sure miss them! My niece's little boys were there. Aiden hunted Easter eggs, etc., but I forgot to get out the camera (as usual). After most everyone was gone, I finally remembered the camera.

Susan took this picture:




This is Don and I in my mother's living room.

Don took this picture:




This is my sister, Susan, me, our daughter Nicole, and my mom (who is still going strong at age 81!).

Monday we went out to Vail and had dinner and played games with some good friends. The rest of the week was spent working on the bat job (which should be done next week), and working with the boy scouts. Don also went on an overnight camp out Friday and Saturday with Spencyr and had a fun time. Don's birthday is coming up soon. I'll blog about that next week. And Paige's will be 5 years old on the 21st of April. That little girl is growing up so fast! How we miss the grand kids!

I'm glad for the family that lives nearby, and miss those members of the family that are far away. But love binds us and keeps us close together even though there may be many miles between us and many weeks that go by between visits...families are forever.

Water for the Wildlife

Yesterday Don did a special project in the southern end of Catalina Regional Park (he's the manager). Many volunteers from the community came to put a pond liner in the large wildlife pond in the conservation area of the park. It was great to see so many people turn out. Not even the rain and subsequent mud kept them away. The pond is large enough that it took two rolls of liner (overlapping in the middle) to get it lined. Each roll weighed 1200 pounds and had to be lifted with the little tractor before it could be rolled out.

It took everyone pulling with all of their strength to get the liner across the pond...

...and up the other side. what a chore!

Then it had to be unfolded and laid out flat. Once that was done, everybody took a break for donuts, fruit, and juice. Then it was back to work with the second half...same thing all over again! When that was done, large rocks were brought in to hold down the edges. Because of the rain, we couldn't get the middle seam put together. That will have to be done next week.

Afterwards, everyone took another food break, and a bunch of them posed for me. It was a big morning, and we're so glad that it went well. Don's been working on this project for weeks!



We're still working on the the bat exclusion project at the elementary school. We think we can have that done in another week or two.

Happy Easter, everyone! We are profoundly grateful for the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ and all it affords us. We enjoyed talking to the grand kids this morning, and will spend this afternoon with my side of the family. Life is good. We are happy and feel very blessed. We hope you do also.

New Activity

This week I tried a new activity: vinyl lettering on wood. It was fun, and I enjoyed the time I spent doing it. I'm not very good at it yet, but hopefully, with time, I will be.

Here are my first three projects. One is for a wedding next week, one is a colorful recipe box, and one is a Choose The Right plaque. I have a few more projects planned...hope they turn out as well (or better).

Organized Again

Just a quick update.


This week I had to get super organized in order to do everything that I needed to do. I even had to make a schedule! It was good for me because I haven't been this organized since I left school teaching!!! I created a little space for myself in the corner of the computer room to do the sewing and some crafts, which I am excited about!


On the fun side, we got to see some old friends and enjoy an evening with them. We had a wonderful Relief Society breakfast to review the talks from last Conference and to prepare for General Conference next weekend. We also got to talk to the grandkids on the computer and see them as we talked. I LOVE doing that! They are growing up so quickly! I miss them so much!


We bid a BIG job at an elementary school (to exclude bats) and won the contract. The next couple of weeks will be spent there. Nicole is going to help us tonight. We have to do much of the work after dark because we need to wait for the bats to fly out to eat insects. Then we can look into their roost sites with the camera to make sure that no young bats are left behind before we close off the cracks and holes that they had been roosting in. In the morning when they return they will see that they can't get back in and go find a new home. So last week we spent a lot of time planning and buying supplies. I'll try to get some pictures.

The North 40

What a great week we had on our land in northeastern Arizaona!

When we left, we headed up through the mining towns of central Arizona. There is a lot of copper that is mined in open pit mines here. This is a picture taken out of the front window of the truck as we were going into a lighted tunnel that went through one of the mountains just outside of one of the mining towns.

This next picture was taken looking out of the driver's window at an open pit mine.


As we wound our way up, we came to the Salt River Canyon. In this picture you can almost see the river snaking its way through the bottom of the canyon.


When we finally got down to the bottom of the canyon, the Salt River was easy to see. People were rafting down the river. That's the highway off to the right which will help to give you an idea of the size of the river.

Going up the other side, there are canyons that are beautiful and deep. After we climbed up out of the Salt River Canyon ...

...we passed through some pine forests, and stopped in Show Low to see Don's Mom.

Then wee headed norteast through St. Johns and up toward the land. The Painted Desert is not too far away, so once in a while you see hills like these that have different colors of sand and rock layered in them.

We finally got to our land which used to be part of a huge cattle ranch. They still run cattle on part of the land, so we often see cows going by. WE are also very close to the Petrified Forest and often find pieces of petrified rock or broken pottery on our land.

Our little cabin/shack was still in good shape. It's tiny (just under 200 squre feet), but we love camping there. There's a well nearby where we can get water, and there is only one neighbor within about 3 miles. It's quiet and peaceful. I especially love the nights because there are so many stars that can be seen.

We built a front porch and got it painted. Inside we have a wood burning stove (the nights were down around freezing, and the days were up around 70 degrees F.). The weather was perfect! It may not look like anything special to others, but Don and I bult it with our own hand and it's special to us.

The dogs loved running around all morning, and then sleeping all afternoon.

It was a relazing but productive week. I didn't want to come home! We hope to go up again in a few months. It's our favorite vacation spot in the whole world!

We arrived home safely, and found all well here. Today we went to a 40th year reunion of the Kodenkan in Tucson. I was one of the members that first year as a kid, and it is fun to remember all of the years of doing martial arts and going to tournaments. Today it was fun for me to see and talk to so many friends from my youth. It's hard to believe that 40 years have gone by since I started doing Judo and Juijitsu. I just don't feel that old...hmmm...where did the time go?

Yee-Haw!

Last night we had a ward party which was like a county fair. The decorations were very cute, and the food was really good! I was asked to sing and play my guitar, so I got Don to play his harmonicas and another guy in the ward, Kevin, to play his guitar with me. Kevin sings, too, so we were able to entertain for quite a while and had a lot of fun. After dinner they let people karaoke which was fun as well as funny. All in all, it was a good night. These pictures were taken just as people were arriving. I should have gotten some pictures of the decorations and the kids on the dance floor. Oh well.


It's been so long since I've played guitar and it was hard to play because I don't have callouses on my fingers any more. After two weeks of practicing and then playing last night (for a lot longer than I thought we would), I can feel them starting to come back. Maybe I should keep playing so that they will stay on my fingers. Maybe....


I thought that when I stopped teaching school I would suddenly have a lot more time to myself to read and relax. Wrong! Some days are so crazy busy that I can't get everything done. My days are now filled with all the things I have wanted to do but haven't been able to do for years. And that's good! Really good! I'm enjoying myself a lot, and am glad for this season of my life.

Settled In

I feel like we've finally settled into our new home, ward, and routine. We're working on getting the summer garden planted and the new irrigation put in. We started cleaning out the pool and getting it ready for the summer. We're also practicing to sing at the ward party next Saturday with some friends in the ward, and that has been fun. Soccer continues on each week. Work continues on. The sunshine and heat are back, and are probably here to stay. Don's job may see some changes because of the budget crunch that the state and county are feeling, but the critter gitter jobs are are holding steady. We did a couple of critter jobs this week. The biggest one was excluding a flock of pigeons that had taken over a man's front porch and the side of his house (they are SO messy!). The pigeons were not very happy with us when we left, but the man was. But the best thing we did this week was to go with about 30 of the youth from our ward up to the Mesa temple on Friday. It was a great day, and we very much enjoyed being there and being in such good company!

I posted pictures several months ago of this house (we moved in last July), but a couple of you who didn't see the pictures then wanted to see them now. So, here you go!