It's a rainy day in Arizona

Come July I will look back on this day with envy, longing to wear a sweater and breathe in crisp air. But today I feel cheated. For weeks I have been planning a garden party, a baby shower for a dear friend soon to deliver her first boy. Instead of being outside with flowers in their prime and soft breezes, we cozied up in my combo kitchen/great room. The company and food were great, but we were a bit crowded. Hard to imagine that it was 100 degrees F just one week ago.

This was my Friday visitor. She's enjoying a bit of lunch after taking a two hour nap. Mommy Sally went to the Arizona Science Center with Ruby and her 1st grade class on a field trip.

Mabel is a sweet observer. It was like she was in a brand new space. She looked at everything and everywhere. It must feel different for a baby to be at grandma's house without the other twenty family members to distract you.

After the baby shower/garden party sans the garden, the rain drops ceased and I wandered outside with my camera. The best thing in the garden this week is the rose arbor which is blooming profusely.

So pretty and so fragrant. These Don Juan climbing roses put on a show in the spring and once more in the fall.

They're intermingled with a small white climbing rose. When I planted them, I imagined them blooming as a mixture. They, however, seem to enjoy putting on a show of their own with white following red.

Here are some pictures of what the guests missed in the back garden.

I planted daisies in the pots one year and there have been volunteer daisies every March/April since.

It would have been lovely to be in the garden, but it was still very warm and friendly in the house!

Downwinders

I am a "downwinder." A downwinder is someone who is exposed to nuclear radiation, specifically during atomic testing in the 1950's and 60's. I spent my childhood living on a dairy farm in Idaho. We drank raw milk from our Jersey cows who grazed on grass from the meadow by the house and ate hay harvested from our own farmland, thus concentrating any exposure from nuclear testing in Nevada in the 1950's. It seems that radiation caught the wind patterns and fell hundreds of miles away just like the government thought it would, mostly on less populated parts of the United States. This was information which would take decades to become public knowledge.

When I first read about downwinders and realized that I qualified as one a few years back, I had also just been diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroid disease. Thyroid issues are common in downwinders (Hyperactive thyroids are medically destroyed using radioactive iodine.) Interestingly, 4 of my 6 siblings are currently taking medication to treat thyroid problems. Both of our parents had thyroid issues, but on opposite ends of the spectrum. Thyroid cancer is common in downwinders. I insisted that my endrocirnologist place copies of articles that I had collected about downwinders in my medical file. There was no resistance on his part.

I was born in Fremont County and our dairy farm was in Madison County, both of which are in the red northeast corner of Idaho just below Montana and west of Wyoming as you can see in the map of the United States at the beginning of this post. I find this map to be fairly sobering. I've been thinking more about being a downwinder lately as I read, watch, and hear about the nuclear energy plant disaster in Japan. I also find it hard to trust those who are reassuring us that there is no danger.

How Can I Be

Janet Turk from Mesa is currently with her husband, Terry, who is President of the Trujillo Peru Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in Peru. She blogs about their experience here. Today she shared this video of three Mesa boys, currently serving as missionaries in various parts of the world, who sang their testimonies to her in 2008.

It was very moving for me today as I am about to complete another reading of the Book of Mormon with a renewed love for the great leaders and their stories which are found in this great book.

Enjoy!

Twice a year special weekend

The beginning of each October and April, my church holds what is known as General Conference. They broadcast across the world from Salt Lake City, Utah. There are talks by the First Presidency of the Church and General Authorities as well as music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other local choirs. It is a wonderful weekend of spiritual uplift, instruction, and resolve.

There are two 2-hour sessions on Saturday and Sunday as well as a Saturday evening session for those holding the Priesthood. My oldest grandson, TJ, is now 12 and has been ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. The only way Grandpa Glen knew how to help him with his tie was to act like he was tying his own.

It has become a bit of a family tradition for all the family to meet at our home between the afternoon and Priesthood sessions for a meal and family interaction. Then the men leave together to go to our Stake Center to view the session via satellite broadcast with other brethren. The women and children enjoy the company of one another until babies are tired and need to go home.

Today we made pizzas on the grill and enjoyed homemade cookies and ice cream. We would have enjoyed the backyard but we are having a heat wave. We broke a record yesterday at 100 degrees, first century mark for 2011. There will be more, many more. So we spent a bit of time here and there outside, but the children mostly wanted to play inside.

Sadie loves to rock and she also loves jellybeans!

This is what my library/living room looks like when it is full of grandchildren and Playmobil.

They gravitate to this room with its lovely wool carpeting.

Toby has reason to smile broadly. He hit two "grand slams" at his baseball game today.

Mabel was the first baby too tired to play and in need of going home to bed. She snuggled right up to her Auntie Nichelle while waiting for her mommy. TJ is the only grandchild left in the house. He is enjoying a solo grandkid sleepover tonight.

I'm looking forward to another day of spiritual enlightenment tomorrow. The talks are always printed in the Ensign magazine in the May or November issue so it is possible to read and study them again. I am so grateful for this constant nourishment of the soul.

Book of Mormon Art

Moroni mourns the death of his father, Mormon
by Walter Rane

This school year the Mesa East Stake Adult Religion Class has been studying the Book of Mormon. Today we studied about Mormon and his son Moroni. It is a sad, sad story of two great righteous men who watch their people become annihilated. Mormon dies and Moroni is left alone and lives on as a hunted man for 36 more years. It was a very emotional class today and one of the class members let us know that the above image can currently be viewed in Mesa. To read more about Mormon and Moroni please visit teacher Jenny Denton's class blog here.

This man, Walter Rane, painted the above image along with many other images from the Book of Mormon. Those images are currently on display in the Visitor Center of the Mesa Arizona Temple. I stopped in today and they are beautiful and masterful. Take time to go see them sometime during April.

My grand daughters would like to know that Walter Rane has also worked for Pleasant Company and did the artwork for the Kit doll books.

March in southern Arizona is perfect

I can hardly stand how wonderful it is to be outside this time of year in Arizona. We hosted two dinners al fresco with Glen at the grill this weekend. Don't you think that food eaten outside tastes better! It made grandma's heart happy to see grandson, ten month old Oscar, devour fresh tomatoes from the garden. Ruby is my other big tomato eater. They must be cousins!

I am so happy to have an outdoor dining space.

Early morning today was truly glorious and so my camera and I shot a view.

The newly planted green beans are up.

The citrus is in bloom. There is nothing more divine than citrus scent in the air.

Geberas are the daisy that just keeps on giving.

It's a miracle every year when the sun gets high enough in the sky to hit the winter shaded part of the garden. The potted plants seem to double overnight.

One of Glen's newest, a camellia bush.

The bougainvillea may be dried leaves and sticks from our freezes, but the trumpet vine has ignored boundaries and climbed the neighbor's palm tree.

And now some of this morning's blooms for your enjoyment.








If your Spring has yet to come, don't worry it will "bee" there soon!

The best of my Utah week

Glen and I had the great opportunity to attend "Harmony, the Music of Life" presented by the BYU Young Ambassadors while in Utah. We watched them in the de Jong Concert Hall on campus and it was a pure delight.

So much energy and great talent was on display! Our Mesa neighbor, Max Eddington, plays keyboards in the band which was in the background on stage so we could watch his flying fingers as well. Go here for their tour dates this year. If they are coming to your town, don't miss it!

LAST CROSSING OF THE NORTH PLATTE, FORT CASPER
by Frank Magleby

At church on Sunday, they announced that the artist, Frank Magleby, would be making a presentation on Tuesday evening for all adults in the ward. This was an unexpected artistic treat! A video was shown of how the work progressed on the murals for the Nauvoo Temple of which Mr. Magleby was overseer. He and five other artists (all former students of his at BYU) did the majority of the painting on canvas sized to fit the walls in the temple at the BYU Motion Picture Sound Stage. The murals were then transported to Nauvoo, Illinois where they were applied to the walls and the artists came to do the final finish work. You can read more about it here.

After the video presentation, the artist held a Q & A session, which was also fascinating. Frank lives in the same Provo town home development where we have a unit and continues to paint during his retirement years. He has also served as a service missionary for the church and his paintings hang in temples across the world. Two of his paintings hang in the church building near his home which I have enjoyed over the years.

We took a little drive up Provo Canyon to Sundance and beyond to Aspen Grove.

As you can see there is been a bit of snow. Utah was still very wintery and more snow fell after we left for Arizona. So much for the first day of Spring! However, I did see a crocus or daffodil or two on the south side of homes on my morning walks so Spring will eventually come.

We met someone new for the first time. Megan is the new and first daughter of nephew Cory and Elizabeth. Cory is currently working on a master's degree at BYU. We also spent some visit time with niece Miriam and Jared who also live in Provo.

Glen worked very hard and I read books and knitted. I also cleaned a bit and cooked a bit and watched some basketball.

Look what met the eye just west of the Chevron gas station in Munds Park on the way home. Does anyone else find this hysterical? I think the owner of the station must be a bit OCD. There was also a poster in the bathroom with very specific directions. At least it was clean!