Volunteers at the Walton Art Center

We are now serving as volunteers at the Walton Art Center where we take tickets, greet, usher etc. and are finding it interesting and even fun for we get to watch the shows for free when we are not working and are meeting nice people from all over this area. This week it was Riverdance - their final tour, and it was fabulous. There will be wonderful concerts, Broadway shows, dance and theater productions and we can choose the ones we want to do. We look forward to Peter and the Wolf, Nutcracker, The Rat Pack, Little House on the Prairie (the musical) South Pacific and Grease among others. We won't be able to do all of them but it is nice to have the option. There are many things available to us that we don't take advantage of and we are glad that we decided to do this. We wear tuxedo shirts with bow ties and black. Dick is wearing his 'Peter vest' from doing the show in Nauvoo and is handsome as ever.

My Thoughts on OCD

As I was cleaning and straightening and making sure the lines were right on the bedspread, and the towels were hanging exactly straight and the rugs were absolutely square and everything was in it's proper place and Dick was saying 'Does it matter?' the thought came that maybe I was OCD like the test on facebook indicated that I have strong tendencies towards, but I quickly dismissed this for what is wrong with being neat and orderly if you just do it and forget it. Then the thought came that according to these silly little quick question and answer and then diagnose quizzes many people would be labeled OCD - perhaps even God. His is a house of order and nothing can enter therein that is not clean every whit. How does that sound? Perhaps the difference is that we need to strive for order but not at the expense of all else so we get the job done and then go on to other things. There is peace and even freedom when there is order. Right???

It works!

I have started a new way of reading scriptures. Dick and I read together faithfully every night before going to bed and are studying the D & C by using the book by David J. Ridges to help make reading the scriptures easier. This is very good and we learn much but I felt that I needed to be reading the Book of Mormon again on my own and so now read it first thing in the day. That is the rule - read scriptures before anything else for if I have time to read emails, or newspaper I have time to read the scriptures. Sometimes it is later in the day but still it comes before any other reading. I like this and it works for me. There is something so satisfying to read and have the scriptures in my life everyday. I so need to be uplifted and sustained each day.

The 'finished project'. An afghan that took years to complete.

The little hat that was inspired by Heidi wanting a beanie for Syreia. Took hours. Fun!

My sweet girls.

I am really not very good at this and wish that I knew how to rearrange things, change the font color, add or subtract parts, be creative and clever. This might be fun if I knew how to do it....

The girls in my Beehive class - Veronica Harvey, Ashley McGarrah, Mary Ann (Sunshine) Palmer and Hannah Davis. Is this a good thing for an old lady to be with these sweet young things? Oh yes. At least for awhile. I really do enjoy teaching the lessons and they are eager to do most anything so it is a chance to feel like a girl again. I told them that I really am just a little girl in a wrinkled body and they seem to go along with this.

It is done!!! Finished!!!! After years of working on this afgahn and then putting it away till later I finally got it out with the intent to have it staring at me until I got it done. The finishing is never as fun as starting a new project and so I have made a committment to work on all my unfinished projects and then get them done or get rid of then. It feels so-o-o-o good to see this one actually completed. Now what do I do with it?

We were so happy that Lars and his friend Lauren came for a day and it was good to see for ourselves what a really fine young man he continues to be and to meet this very special young women who he seems to be fond of. We also got to see Mikie and his friend and spend a little time with them - and get my very special Mikie hug - but I don't have a picture to post now. These are some of the dearest people I know.

What a wonderful gift it was to have time with people that we love - and even more than a few hours it was for days. Maybe this was a bit much for some, but it was a delight and a joy for us and treasured for it may never happen again. Sweet Heidi and very kind and patient Josh let us park our trailer next to their house where we were then next door neighbors for about ten days. It was great to have time to get to know smart clever Deegan and to love and enjoy adorable little Syreia. Heidi was so generous and treated us so well planning meals and things for us to do together.
It was an added treat to have Ranell and Mike close enough to join us often and we so appreciate their taking the time and making the effort to drive the 30+ miles often to be with us.
Four generations of girls - Oma, Ranell, Heidi and Syreia












Two generations of grandparents, parents and kids.
Heidi, Syreia, Deegan, Oma, Ranell
Josh, Opa, Mike











We went to the beautiful Vernal Temple - once with Heidi when we were there with Mike and Ranell who were serving then and another time with Don and Sammie Simmonds. It would be a blessing to be close enough to go often.

Keith, Stephanie, Colton, Natalie, Austin and Makenzie




















Coree, Gavin, Rachel, Jonny, Nicole and Vika

The more the better.... ( but still there are 8 more)













Ranell, Vi and Roux - and then there are Mike, Lars, Heidi, Josh, Deegan, Syreia and Mikie







David, Susan, Taylor, Morgan, Emmi and add Nick

Reunion July 2009

First there were two.....


















Then there were four more.....

















And then came more and more.....

What a day.... Kayla and Abigail Barry came for the day while their Mother was at work and we played and had fun all day. We made little people out of salt dough, and beaded book marks and cookies and then painted the little people and played games. It is a good feeling to help someone else learn how to do something and then watch the pride and joy they feel when they see what they can do. These girls were eager to learn and after a bit of 'I can't' they started enjoying it and then did a great job. It seems to be the enjoying that brings out the creativity and success.

So the cookies were great! The beads were pretty.... and the people were cute... but the girls were a joy.

How crazy is this? A dress made out of a black trash bag and modeled in a fashion show. How do I get myself into such things? This was for the U of A Extension Club that I have been going to this past year ( I thought it would be a good way to meet people in the community) and very reluctantly participated in this luncheon with a Hill Billy theme. The clothes were to be created out of trash or throw away stuff. You can see that there were some clever ideas. I added a pearl necklace made out of cotton balls, a boa made of ruffled plastic and a hat trimmed with trash bag flowers and streamers. It did turn out to be a fun time, but I am deciding that this kind of activity with these women who are not turning out to be 'friends' is not for me. So now what???

PANAMA CRUISE April 13 - 24, 2009
After months of planning and preparing we set sail with ten good friends from our Nauvoo Mission on a Caribbean cruise and after a very stressful start with many harrowing hours trying to get these good people from Salt Lake to Miami because of weather issues that kept them stranded in Houston they arrived on board in the very nick of time and we were on our way. The trip was a celebration of our being together and we enjoyed every minute for it is true that 'the better we knew them the more we loved them'. We left Miami with fair weather and calm seas and had two days on ship before arriving at Arruba, then on to Cartegena, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica and Grand Cayman.



The meeting of twelve good friends around the table in the main dinning room every night at 6:00 for scrumptious food and great talk. This was one of the formal nights when we dressed all up and acted a little fancy - as much as cowboys, farmers and jocks can be.

From right corner around - Judy and Charlie Cook, Dick, Gayle Bramwell, Jean, Wayne Brimley, Ruth Harding (86 yrs. old), Helen Jane Lemon, Clara, Calvin Johnson, Roy, Joan Stoddard.

We played musical chairs and changed seats every night to mix up the conversation. After dinner someone went to reserve us seats in the theater for the show that night then we would often go to listen to music and do a little dancing till late. Sometimes there was an eleven o'clock buffet with more yummy food - just what we needed to finish the day, but it really ended when the Brimleys and we would go up to the Windjammer of the 11 floor for chamomile and peppermint tea for a good night sleep and to watch the waves in the moonlight.


This is in Arruba where the island is dry and it looks rather like Arizona with cactus, but the water is gorgeous blue, warm and calm and a great place for wind surfing and kite boarding. We rode the public bus to the Marriott Hotel that was beautiful and enjoyed the beach there.
The Panama Canal was the highlight of our trip for we were really there watching the locks close and fill up with water and then open to let us go on to the next one and end up 85 feet above sea level in the lake where the ship turned around and went back through to the Atlantic again. We got off the ship and took a tour on to Panama City on the Pacific side and saw much of the country from sea to sea.

Our ship was one of the largest to fit in the locks with only two feet to spare on each side.

The canal is a masterful feat for man to engineer and accomplish and they did this about a hundred years ago.

One of the things that makes me happy when the world starts tumbling around me is flowers -
I like to plant them, grow them, see them, pick them, photograph them and paint pictures of them with watercolors and they lift my spirits with their beauty and color for they are a living thing fulfilling their purpose. I would like to be more like that in my life for some days I don't feel that I even know my own purpose let alone fill it. I am grateful that I have flowers in my life in many forms - outside in the yard, in the house growing on the shelves of the laundry or in vases, on the walls as pictures and in photographs to enjoy the flowers of the past when there are not any blooming at the moment. Flowers are a gift from a loving Heavenly Father who wants to remind us of His love with beauty that he creates just for us, and I do feel that flowers are my own personal gift from my Father.

WHEN EVER I TOUCH A VELVET ROSE OR WALK BY OUR LILAC TREE.....
YES, I KNOW MY HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME!

It is Iris time and they are so elegant and lovely. It is good to pick them and bring them in the house
for they keep opening and bloom as well in a vase as outside where the rain and wind sometimes make them fall or tear.
I enjoy watching them go through the whole cycle of bud to glorious flower to dying - which has a beauty of it's own.

Isn't this a lovely display of blooming your heart out. This is a clematis vine and it gets better every year.
I would hope that this can be said of me.

As the iris bloom it is planting time to get annuals started for the summer. It is a good feeling to dig in the dirt and put in little plants that will bring so much beauty and joy in the coming months. One lesson learned is that things have to be planted in season and that you have to plan ahead to have flowers later.

ALL THE FLOWERS OF TOMORROW ARE IN THE SEEDS OF TODAY.

How true is this...

If you don't plant you can not grow and harvest.

A cute quilt with alphabet blocks and then the same blocks to match up as a game.

A 'peek a boo' quilt with cute pictures of aimals.

Carol and Jerry Campbell
We had great fun with these missionary friends playing games and going to the Fountain Hills Art Show and have plans for the men to play golf and Carol and I to do watercolors. They are from California but after their mission in Nauvoo moved to Mesa. We fist met when we both lived in the JSA on our mission.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 27, 2009

Quilt show at the Country Side RV Park
Lots of beautiful interesting quilts made by the ladies in the park. These are mystery quilts made as they learned a new pattern and then put them all together.

A pretty appliqued wall hanging well done.

Another beautiful quilt. They are having a raffle for a quilt and I hoped to win - but didn't
The group meet once a week and make quilts to send overseas and for homeless and child care centers.
They have sewing machines for people to use while they are here.