Growing in Arizona

So now we are in Arizona with a nice covered patio and beautiful spring weather we decided to get new patio furniture. We use our patio as an outdoor living space and have enjoyed it so much.    As you can see, we added a highchair to protect Lydia since she is so Mobile now and gets so excited about eating the rocks.  However this has become the perfect place to sit and read.

I love the look of my little lettuce garden in pots.

We also thought we could try our hand at gardening in a new climate. Our yard is mostly rocks with a small putting green in the center of the back yard (actually astro turf) We planted some cantaloupe and water melon and squash in the ground and then did tomatoes,peppers and cucumbers in planters.

So far no one has taken up golf but we sure are collecting a lot of balls from the golf course

This is Scott's handy work with a trellis for the cucumbers to grow up.  We are hoping to make our own pickles.

It is starting to get hot so we are keeping our fingers crossed that with a lot of watering we will get a harvest. In the meantime we are enjoying tending to our plants and relaxing in our back yard.

I am Ready

........I love it when all of the house is decorated, the gifts are all sent or wrapped and I can sit on the couch and watch White Christmas without doing anything productive.   I am actually there and it is the 16th YAY Allison.   It is fun to have a winding staircase this year.  Our old tree was too wide and tall to fit anywhere so we got this tall narrow one and used half of the ornaments.

I have this little nich in the wall so I made a new large wreath with lights for it.  I wanted to do the white, gold and apothecary jars but it didn't look good on the cream walls so I painted the background wall and added the JOY.   In one of the jars there are gold stars and the other one is a mini nativity....so cool.

    With moving this year I got rid of at least half of my decorations and I was so glad because, with a  new house you have to change things up.  Of course we always have our traditional Nativity.    One of my watch a movie projects was this golden ornament tree.  I love it now but I had to make about three trips to the store for more bulbs.                            





                                                                                I had to get out the traditional bells this year too, and found a place on the dining room archway.  They play about 30 songs which are awesome for about 10 minutes then off they go.
    I love to enjoy my decoration and lights with my favorite Mormon Tabernacle choir singing Christmas songs.  Even though it is sunny and dessert outside now that we are decorated it feel like Christmas.  

Can you decorate for Halloween when it's not Fall?

     It is so interesting to see the people of Arizona get excited for Fall.  It started when the temperature dropped below 100 degrees the first of October.  People are in the mood for a change of season.  I personally just got used to enjoying my summer, but everyone here has been hot for 3 months.    I think it is beautiful here with a desert landscape and I am enjoying no yard work.  However, people around me are putting out their fall decorations regardless of the fact that there are no autumn leaves and the sky is bright blue.

This was the start of my haunted house collection.  A great friend door-bell-ditched it for me one Halloween!

     I decided to jump on in and at least put up my Halloween decorations.  I really like them and it has been fun having a grandchild around that is excited about each new thing.  Because she is two we don't talk about scary, creepy or spooky.  We have nice witches, happy ghosts and friendly spiders.  (she still keeps her distance ha, ha)

It's time

One week from today, only privileged people will be able to read my blog.

That's right... I'm going private.

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Teaching Relief Society

     I just got called to be a RS teacher and it is interesting to me what people say when they hear about it.  Obviously I like the "oh, you'll be so good"  remarks  but often, people say "Oh I could never do that", or "that would scare me to death".   When I first got to teach adult women after being forever in Young Women,  I admit, I was a bit intimidated.  I soon realized that I was assuming that the women would judge me like I judge a teacher, when you get 40 minutes to watch and listen to them.
     For example,  I would definitely look at what they had on and form an opinion of how well she was all put together. Admittedly, I enjoy looking at someone who is well dressed and appropriate for the occasion.  The second the teacher starts teaching I can feel their spirit and preparation and I make a subconscious decision on how interested I am in what she is teaching. I like a teacher to be personable, to interact with the class, add their own experiences and have a testimony of the subject.  So given that,  no wonder people feel scared of  the task of being in front of women and teaching.   But that is only how my brain works,  we could also add a host of things that other people value from a teacher.
     With that said, I want to share why I am excited about this calling and why I love to teach.   Of course one of the biggest perks is that the teacher always learns the most and I love the preparation.  I like having my mind on a subject.  Second,  It's fun to interact with the class and actually see in their faces that they are relating to you or getting the point that you are making.  Third, once I figured out that I am really just one of the class and that they all have the same weaknesses (some even worse than me...did I say that out loud) as I do  I started being myself when I taught.  I would acknowledge what was hard for me or that I had a run in my nylons or my true feelings about something and the class would relax and want to hear what I had to say. Myself was good enough.

leaving for church prepared to teach (notice the candy)

     Now I love to teach and I really try to live up to my expectations of what I like in a teacher but the best thing that I have learned is the secret of a good class.  The secret is to have the spirit with you guiding what you say so the class is actually taught by the spirit, not you.  We talk about it but to actually do it is so awesome and brings me so much joy.  I admit that I don't always succeed with this but I always try.  So because of all these things and most importantly my personal experience of feeling the outpouring of the spirit I love to teach!

FYI

.......I know that it has been way too long since I blogged and so I finally decided to share why.   About three months ago my husbands X wife Pamela found out about our plans for moving and instead of just calling Scott and talking about the details and her concerns, she goes 'rambo' on us.  That is when I discovered that she had been following my blog and my facebook.  I kept both of those public because I didn't mind sharing my life until someone started using it to do harm to my family. Pamela  was posting pictures on her facebook that were of my life and my family.  She was getting information to take Scott to court and to get custody of Esther.  Now, $3000 less we are still in court.  I felt good about her having access to her children on facebook so she could keep up with their lives but using her relationship there for information to cause problems is not okay.  She has taken all of the fun out of my blog keeping.  I really don't want to make it all private  so for now I am on HOLD!

Married to the 'Scout Master"

 My sweet husband Scott was just released, after 6 years, from being our ward SCOUT MASTER!

I want to dedicate this blog post to him because I am totally amazed by the job he has done.   I know that some people think that Scout Master is just a big excuse for your husband to go play outdoors every month and actually it is, but really good ones also make a huge difference in a lot of little guys lives.  All you have to do is watch a handful of 12 years olds getting their 'canoe merit  badge' down in our backyard for about 2 minutes to see that a scout master has to have the patience of Job ( that poor guy in the Old Testamont) They never stop, there is either something going into their mouth or coming out.  They have no attention span and move around constantly.  It is hilarious watching them.
          I loved watching Scott at 6'5" tall being followed around by really little guys  talkin' big!   He really loved them and taught them alot.  Everyone of his scouts made a lot of advancement in the time he had them.

Every Scout Master needs a favorite chair to relax and bark orders from!

The last scout meeting the scouts honored Scott with a sign plague and cake.
He was really pleased by their gratitude.

Biking merit badge here we go again!   Scott loved working with Ben Morton and Ed Massey.

out in the wilderness with a bunch of boys and "Louie Lamour"

Alot of camping, Hiking, fishing, snow shoeing, canoeing, knots, First aid etc....etc.....Every tuesday night and one week end camping every month  all adds up to alot of fun, alot of gas, alot of camping equipment and a very happy Scott Master  and a really great Scout Troop!   I am always happy when Scott comes home after having a successful camp out.   He's my favorite Scott.!   I'm proud of him!

Graduating in 2011

Wow,  what does the world look like for graduates in 2011?   These aren't the baby boomers....this has got to be generation Y2K....no rotary phones, heck, no phone booths, romote control everything, digital everything.  They have played nintendo,playstation 1, 2 and 3, X box, Wii and what is that new thing now?  They all went through MP3 players, IPODS, ITOUCH  and what were those other things?  I can't keep up.  I was the generation that can remember getting a colored TV.  These guys went from flat screen, Plasma, LCD, TV's and beyond!   In my day we passed notes and talked on our telephones stuck by the wall where the chord was attached.  Now they text faster than I could ever type or speak and don't have to bother with the phone.  They can even carry on a conversation while pretending to pay attention in class undetected by the teacher. The world is so easy for theY2Kers they don't even have to spit out watermelon seeds.  The question is, are they as educated and prepared for the world as we were?  They all have straight teeth!   Actually,  I think they were at that point when they started Highschool.  Yep,  I don't feel like they get as much out of highschool as we did.  I think they are full by 8th grade and unsatisfied by 9th, 10th and 11th grades.There is so much information, education, opportunity and competition out here now that I think it is quite overwhelming.  When asked what they want to do with their life it is a multiple multiple choice with no wrong answers.   The next 20 years will be very interesting to watch.   So in the words of the Valedictorian at Nephi's graduation, "Never fear, Seniors,  the economy is booming, the job market is wide open and the planet is fine!   Of course that got a big nervous laugh. 

Nephi and Mom

Of course we got rained on, nice hat Rhyll!

Grandma Starley and Grandpa De came for the big night

we went out to the Mexican food before the ceremony...yummy bean dip!

Allison, Nephi, Scott, Starley, De.Esther and Kailey

Everyone loved having Sarah here from Boise Idaho!

   June 15th 2011,  Nephi Spencer Smith Graduated from Sumner High School in Washington State.   After the ceremony he and his 2 best friends hung out at a bon fire and talked about the good ol' days till they fell asleep.  Unfortunately. they don't know yet that the good ol' days lie ahead.   Go 'Spartans"

Everything is more fun when a toddler is around

There is nothing quite like seeing the world through the eyes of a little child.   To Lucy, my 2 year old grand-daughter, the world is so interesting and exciting.  Each person she meets is a new playmate, animals are pure delight.  She wants to touch or taste everything and then talk about it.  How wonderful to start each new day with wonder and no worries about time.  You just do something because it feels good, even over and over again.  I am such a long way from 2 years old but am so grateful for the joy of having a 2 year old to enjoy life with.

I Love them all!

Americas top three:  Haley Reinhart, Scotty McGreery, and Lauren Alaina.

This spring, Scott and I started watching American Idol.  We haven't watched it before.  We were immediately amazed by the teenagers oozing with incredible talent.  We have really enjoyed watching the final contestants find their own styles and develope into great performers.  I personally have a soft spot for everyone of them and hate for anyone to be voted off.

Now we are down to the finals and I am hoping that everyone of them will have an awesome career ahead of them.  I can't vote for everyone anymore so I made myself get picking and I'm throwing the vote in for my 'Scotty boy'.  He has been charming the pants of America for weeks now so I say let him have it.  "He's in it to win it". I love him!

Mother's Day

     It kind of stinks that in order to get a 'Mother's Day' for life card you have to go through labor and delivery, not to mention pregnancy!   I added it up and figured that with 45 months of carrying babies inside me,  37 hours of labor, an additional 40 hours of false labor, and 32 months of nursing,  I deserve the presents I get on M day!!!  But then you take in to consideration that you have been feeding these babies 3 meals a day for the last 30 years which adds up to 32,850 meals ( okay in all honesty I don't always do breakfast so subtract 10,950 and that is still a lot of cookin') I don't think I really deserve the food I get on M day just the labor it took.  All kidding aside I did have a great M day and I feel very blessed to be a mother of 5, a step-mother of 6, a grandmother of 1 and 1/2 , a step-grandma of 2, a mother-in-law of 3, a step-mother-in-law of 3 and I can't forget the 2 grand-dogs.A woman never had it so good. My plate is full and my cup runneth over.  Thanks for a great day.     The added plus to the celebration is that I am blessed with a wonderful mother and mother-in-law.

It is finally looking like SPRING

We are finally getting a bit of sun here and there and it gives me hope for a bit of SPRING.  Everything is starting to bloom.  I have been able to start getting my flower gardens in shape, which I love.  I hate to admit it but after the rain when the sun finally shows it's face everything is a vast display of every color of green with splashes of spring blossoms all around.  It is glorious.   We might even get motivated to put our veggie garden in this next week .  WOW!

Another sign of spring is in our backyard.  All of the little critters are returning including the eagles, ducks and geese.  We love watching the geese because they are in families with a couple that mate for life.  We get to watch when their little gooslings hatch and start following their parents around.  The mom and dad are very protective and usually have the babies in-between them.  Right now we have 2 goose families.  One with 5 babies and one with seven.  They come back and forth between the islands and the grassy backyards to eat and poop (alot) and then go for a swim around the lake.    I wanted closer pics but the geese didn't trust me.

Our Easter Day



I made this Centerpiece to match my spring dishes, complete with the chocolate bunny (yum)

                                                                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                    Of course no Easter celebration is complete without going to church first.  The best part about our Sacrament mtg was the primary children singing "I wonder When He Comes Again"    I was disappointed that there was no chocolate passed out in any of my classes but we made up for it later.   Everyone helped with dinner which was so nice.  We had chicken fried steak with gravy and mashed potatoes.  Sort of a different meal for us.  Rhyll completed our day with homemade Strawberrry short cake.


Allison and Scott,  the perfect couple (at least we think so.)



New Easter dresses,  I made mine.....amazing I know.....the shoes are the best part.  Look at those modest girls....so cute!



Nephi and Easter looking tall and gorgeous



notice the ketchup is the main focus...go figure?

After dinner Scott hid a ton of plastic eggs stuffed with money and candy in our front yard and even in spite of the rain (which I am still ticked about) we had an egg hunt.  Scottee didn't really get the point of the whole Easter thing until he discovered the money in some of the eggs and then he was all for it.  He commented that "Easter is kind of like an Christian Halloween"  Someday I might explain the Atonement to him (again).



Our place settings had individual birds nests with jelly bean eggs in them which Rhyll tried to eat before dinner.



   After the egg hunt we competed in an EGG-TREME SPORT competition.  The prizes where chocolate bunnies and we used about 6 dozen hard boiled dyed eggs which are now smashed all over our back yard.....The critters back there are having a potluck tonight.

Esther didn't win anything in the games but she found the $10 bill in the egg hunt (lucky girl)

Nephi won the longest throw by hitting a tree on the island in the lake thrown from the top deck...wow, I'm impressed.

Kailey tied Nephi for most eggs in the egg hunt and got best time in the egg balancing competition.

Scottee won a chocolate bunny for landing a hard boiled egg in a bucket down by the fire pit thrown from the top deck.