November

This was a great Thanksgiving weekend.  I took Wednesday off from school and got the house cleaned with really lowered the stress factor in my life.  The weather is a little warm for my taste--especially for late November.

Thursday was a wonderful day filled with great food and great company.  We had 24.  Claye had to work and Amber has to stay home because Carter was sick.  We sent them home food though so all they missed was our excellent company.

Friday Sam, Gary, Susan (Rich’s daughter) went to see the movie Lincoln.  It was excellent even though we did have to stand in line for too long.  Abraham Lincoln was the perfect man for his time!  After the movie, we all went to Rosa’s to eat.  Gary, Chris, and Sam headed home so Chris could work on Gary’s new computer.  Stephen, Rich, his girls and I headed over to the temple to see the lights.  Now it was about 70 degrees outside and there were people there with jackets and hats.  I don’t know if they were doing it because they were looking at Christmas lights and if they were really cold.

Now that this weekend is almost over, the craziness begins!  Tuesday night is our Relief Society Party.  Sam has more than seven concerts between now and December 19.  He has a solo in the PCC concert and they are going to be on TV Tuesday night on channel 12.  We’ll see if he makes the cut for TV.  His jazz group is singing for our Relief Society party.  I can’t wait!  I also love to go hear Chorale sing at the temple.  There is nothing like Christmas lights and music together.

Lily is very excited for Christmas.  We plugged some Christmas lights on.  She screamed joyfully, “Christmas!”  I can’t wait until she sees the lights at the temple.  Kate smiles all the time.  We love them both!!!  This picture is Rapunzel and her friend the elephant on Halloween. The wig only lasted about 20 minutes.  But it was cute while it lasted.  For the longest time, we only had Rapunzel.  Lily was off to preschool somewhere.  Rapunzel’s dad was Flynn Rider and her poor mom was Lady Gothal. (The villain in Tangled.)  Now we have Lily back until she decides to be someone else.

Have a joyous and festive December.  We will!!  Dinner at our house on Christmas Eve and Claye and Rakay’s on Christmas.  I don’t want it to come too soon though.  We have the whole month of December to enjoy!

Downton Abbey, the Prius, and Halloween

It’s already the 22nd of October and we are still in the 80’s.  My perfect temperature is 70 degrees, but I’m glad that it has cooled off somewhat.  Two weeks ago was fall break.  April and I had fun hanging out together.  We found a way to watch the new Downton Abbey episodes on the internet, but before we could watch all the episodes, the lady had to shut that part of her website down because she was being threatened by attorneys.  If PBS doesn’t want people to watch it illegally, they should show it now instead of waiting for January.  Sheer nonsense.  I also put my Halloween decorations up.  Lily was so excited.  She is going to be Rapunzel for Halloween and sometimes insists that her mother calls her that.

Kate is doing her army crawl all over the place.  She is one very curious baby.  I don’t think anything will be safe by Christmas.  We are going to have to baricade  her from the living room.  She is also one of the best natured babies I have ever seen.

Last week was parent/teacher conferences so I got out of school an hour earlier.  That was very nice.  This week we are back to the grind with the next day off for Veteran’s Day and then Thanksgiving.  Sam has to take the preparatory ACT test tomorrow.  Mountain View is making all of the sophomores take it.

Gary’s battery in his car died today.  It was a HUGE deal to fix it.  He is not so sure he chose the right car now. After all was said and done, he didn’t make it to work until 3:00.

I will be SO GLAD when the election is finally over and done with.  I’m sick and tired of political ads on the TV and have pretty much decided everybody is lying.  Stephen is in the other room watching the debate right now.

Sam has been rehearsing for Christmas concerts all fall.  His jazz group is coming to sing at our Relief Society Party.  I’m very excited.  The first two weeks of December are loaded with concerts.  He certainly enjoys singing!  

We had everyone over after General Conference.  It was fun to have everyone together, even though some had to leave early.  Our next big event will be Thanksgiving.  Can’t wait.

April is in charge of her ward’s Halloween party and Sam has to go out of town to do Wood Badge for scouts, so I’m going to the party with her to keep track of the girls while she deals with all the party goings on.

I have been helping the 6^th graders work on their compare and contrast papers about the book and the movies of The Outsiders.  Even though I have never read the book or seen the movie, I am sick of having had to hear about them over and over again.  Although, some of the different ways the kids have told the story has been quite entertaining.  

I’ve decided that I was totally cheated in high school in math.  I had a horrible teacher.  Since I have been working with the 5^th and 6^th graders on their math, I think I may have continued to enjoy it if not for that.

Happy Halloween!!!

August

Well we started school again and it was only 116 on the first day. Yuck! I felt sorry for all the kids when they had to go outside of recess.  Anyway, we had a heat advisory warning for the first week of school.  LAME!

Speaking of school, when I walked into a fifth grade class the other day a boy asked me who was better--Michael Jackson or Justin Bieber.  Now I actually used to like Michael Jackson before he got all weird and had so much plastic surgery that his nose almost fell off. I have no use for Justin Bieber whatsoever.  However, maybe if I were in the 5th grade I would really like him.  

I also decided I was very grateful to my 8th grade English teacher for teaching me the parts of a short story.  I didn’t know it would come in handy years and years later since that’s what the 5th graders are studying this week.

Sam is back in the swing of things big time.  Last week he went to PCC camp up in Prescott.  Gary and I went and stayed up there while he was at camp.  I experienced the almost perfect day--sitting on a deck, in the mountains, in the middle of some trees, about 75 degree weather, reading a great book (A Discovery of Witches).  It would have been perfect except for my stupid back hurting.  Sam’s choir is going to be awesome this year.  They sounded great after only 2 days of practice.  It also rained in Prescott.  I wasn’t out in it so it was a great weekend.  Gary had a great idea to stay up there.

Speaking of which, I had a procedure on Friday called radiofrequency ablation.  The doctor stuck a really big needle in my back and used electricity to kill the nerves.  The even had to put a pad on my leg to ground me.  It’s a good thing they shot some kind of sedative in my arm.   Its purpose was to kill the nerves that have been shooting off pain for no reason.  I already feel much better and was able to sit through all of church without running somewhere to stand up.  Yeah for modern medicine.

Because of my back, Sam has attended the baseball games with Gary.  They have had some great father and son bonding time.

Speaking of Sam, he is now old enough to get his learner’s permit.  Where has the time gone?  Am I ready for this?  Probably not.

Lily learned “Little Purple Pansies” in nursery.  She has been singing it to us.  She is getting quite the repertoire of songs between Disney movies and church.

Kate gets cuter every day.  She can roll all over the place and has a very sweet disposition. 

We will all be glad when the primary election is over on Tuesday then maybe politicians will quit calling us all the time and we don’t have to listen to people say terrible things about each other.  Realistically those things  probably won’t happen, but I can dream can’t I?

Someday, sooner rather than later, I hope that it cools off around here.

Sam's trip to Italy (and other events)

Hey everyone, this is Sam here to tell you all about my  tour to Italy this past week with the Phoenix Children’s Choir. As no one else in the family has done anything very interesting (Mom’s words not mine) I am writing this month.

Monday-Tuesday: Dad drove me bright and early (3:30 AM) to the Phoenix Center for the Arts where I met up with my choir and boarded a bus for a 9 hour ride to Los Angeles. (we needed to go to LA because in order to get everyone on the same plane we had to fly Berlin Air which doesn’t fly from Sky Harbor). Once we arrived at LAX we checked our luggage and went through security where I lost my watch (don’t ask) and ate in the gate where I almost suffered food poisoning from undercooked chicken (don’t ask) and boarded the plane. 11 hours later and our plane landed in Berlin where we waited 3 hours for our flight into Rome. We arrived in Rome, checked into our hotel, and enjoyed a 4 course meal with lasagna, salad, some turkey with a gravy of sorts, and tiramisu. 

Wednesday: Toured Castel St. Angelo and walking tour of Rome. After a lunch of spaghetti and strawberry gelato (amazing btw) we toured the Vatican Museum which concluded with walking through the Sistine Chapel, which is BEAUTIFUL. Once we returned to the hotel our group decided to take a nap then go eat at this Italian seafood place (name escapes me) where on the way I almost got ran over by a car on the way there (not my fault I promise). Once there I dined on a whole fresh crab with pasta. (my friend got the same thing but with bass and ate the head as a dare. Not gonna lie, it was pretty awesome).

Thursday: Toured Colosseum and Roman Forum. In free time my group went to Trevii Fountain where we all threw coins in (the story goes that if you toss a coin in the fountain, you will return to Rome someday). We then had a concert in St. Peter’s Basilica for a Mass. Having never been to a Catholic Mass before it was something new and different for me. We then boarded a sleeper train for Catania.

Friday: Once we settled in to the hotel we hung out with a bunch of students of a Catanian school of language. We then went to the beach where I got sunburned (ouch!). Soon after, we went to the mayors residence for a welcoming speech and dinner with the mayor.

Saturday: We went up to Mt. Etna where we were given time to explore, eat lunch, and buy souvenirs. That night we visited an opera house and walked to a theater for a concert. Unfortunately, the building had no AC so at least 5 or 6 people in the choir either got sick or passed out on stage. Because of this and because of the concert ending late, we were allowed to sleep in on...

Sunday: After enjoying a couple more hours of sleep, we got on tour busses for some sightseeing in Catania. Afterwords, my group went Geocaching (look it up for I lack the knowledge to explain it in detail), and found a bread store where for 1 Euro we could get an entire loaf of fresh baked bread (delicious). We then found a group of girls from our choir who had the dilemma of ordering more Pizza than they could eat. Being the gentlemen that we are we decided to help them with their predicament. The choir then went to the US Naval base where we performed for our military servicemen. They then treated us to an amazing BBQ ( a hamburger has never tasted so good in my life).

Monday: We visited tourist central, Taormina, to see the Greeco-Roman theater and do what else, tourist shopping. That night we had our final concert with 2 other Catanian choirs.

Tuesday: Almost missed our flight to Berlin due to the system for baggage check going down for a good hour. Arrived in Berlin and ate some German food and did some tourist shopping.

Wednesday: Got held up in baggage check AGAIN because the Air Berlin staff in Catania accidentally DELETED OUR FLIGHTS. Thankfully it all got sorted out and before too long we were boarded and off on another 11 hour flight back to LAX. 9 hours of bus ride with a stop at Taco Bell in between (Taco Bell never tasted so good!) and we were back in Phoenix at about 10 P.M.

In short it was an amazing experience and I am so grateful that I was able to visit Italy. I now turn the Newsletter over to Mom for any other family information.

Meanwhile back at the ranch. . .School ended and Sam and I were both very glad.  Gary and I went to his firm retreat in Tubac, which doesn’t look like the deserts of Arizona.  I quite enjoyed it.  The weather was hot during the day, but at night and in the morning it was very nice.  We were all together (except Sam) for Father’s Day.  Chris gave Gary a remote control helicopter for Father’s Day.  We figure that Lily will really like it.   I’ve been to doctors for my yearly checkups.  That took up the first two weeks of the month.  My back has been driving me crazy since January.  After three cortisone shots and some physical therapy, it is feeling better.

I have been reading books and staying cool in the house.  Sam has an online biology class that he needs to work on now.  Gary works, counts money and teaches Sunday School.

May Happenings

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER!!!  Yippee and Yea!  I’m planning on doing as much of nothing as possible.

We’ve had concerts galore these past weeks--Sam’s voice recital, orchestra concert (with a rock band), school chorus concerts (the Broadway show), PCC concert (in which some kid pulled the fire alarm and everyone had to exit the Mesa Arts Center for about 15 minutes).  They have all been great, but my rear end was very sick of sitting.  These concerts all involved Sam.  He has successfully completed his freshman year at Mountain View.  Now on to the PCC tour of Italy in two weeks.  I’m stressing out trying to make sure he packs everything he needs.

I had to say good-bye to some good friends at school.  I hate good-byes.  That’s one great thing about Facebook; I can stay in touch with friends.

This is April. I’m adding a paragraph to my parent’s newsletter. It’s a win-win situation for me and my mom. So we are getting into the swing of things with our sweet little Kate. She is a really good baby and is now regularly letting me get at least one 5-6 hour stretch of sleep at night, and then she goes right back to bed for at least another 3. She just started smiling and we all enjoy trying to get her to smile at us. Lily loves her little sister a whole lot and calls her “my baby”. Lily, Kate and I went to a cooking group that I have with a few ladies in my ward. We all make a food that goes with the theme of the month and sit and sample new foods and talk while the kids play. The other little kids were trying to look at Kate and take her blanket off of her and Lily’s big sister/mother hen instinct came out and she stayed by Kate’s side to make sure no one did anything to her little sister that she didn’t approve of. Sam has a camp-out for scouts coming up this weekend and then he has scout camp for a week in June. I’m pretty sure we are going to miss him very much around our house. Sam and I both celebrated birthdays this month. Kate was blessed on my birthday, which was awesome and we had a fun family dinner that night. For Sam’s birthday Sam, Kate and I went to P.F. Changs  for dinner while Lily played with Grandma. That’s about it for us...Have a happy and hopefully not too warm June. 

This is Steve. I recently finished an excellent book entitled Fast and Furious, by Katie Pavlich. In it, author Pavlich does an excellent job of laying out the evidence of misdeed and corruption in the Obama Justice Department. Everyone should read it to fully understand why Eric Holder needs to resign (or be impeached). In other news, I’m still here. And that is my update.

Chris is working, as always, but managed to go to Comic Con, some crazy comic book convention in Phoenix this week.  I think he got his picture taken with someone famous or maybe it was just his friends.  When Sam and April went out to dinner, Lily and I went to Panda Bear (Express) to get food.  She is pretty funny.  

It’s baseball season, so Gary is happy to see the Diamondbacks play once again.

Until next month. . .

The month of April

Meet Kate Vera Shelley.  She was born on May 6 and weighed 7 pounds and 6 ounces.  We all love her tons and tons!  Rakay was there to help with her birth which we were all very happy about!  Lily wasn’t too sure about the whole thing and wouldn’t let her mom out of her sight for a few days.  Now Lily is her mom’s biggest helper.  April finally got Lily to hold Kate a few days ago.  Kate actually let April sleep for 4 hours straight last night.  Ah, the joys of being a new mom!  I took a week off of school to help out.  That was pretty fun.  

This last week all of the kids had to take the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards) test which was not too fun.  Sam didn’t have to take the AIMS test this year.  The 9th grade took the Stanford Achievement test which he said was EASY.  We are coming upon the month of May which in some ways is busier than December.  Bring it on because then school will be out.  Sam performed in the PCC Gala which was a fund raiser for the choir so they got to sing for their supper (in a manner of speaking).  The Gala is PCC’s big fundraiser for the year.  I’m grateful to his voice teacher for hauling him over to Phoenix for all the rehearsals.  His next voice recital is May 5 which is the day before April’s birthday on May 6 which is the same day that Kate will be blessed.   She is wearing April’s blessing dress.

This weekend it has been HOT-- like 102 hot.  I am not looking forward to the long hot summer.  Sam and I went to a really great concert last night while Gary went to the ballgame.  We saw a group called, The Real Group.  They are a vocal jazz group.  He and I really enjoyed it.  It’s amazing to me how they make all the different cool sounds with just their voices.  Sam made the top two choirs at Mountain View for next year and he will only be a sophomore.  I know I am bragging, but I am truly amazed at the talent the Lord has given him.  It is pretty awesome. 

Our April Teachings for our Times lesson was Elder Holland’s talk, which I really liked a lot.  We have really great Relief Society teachers on our ward so Relief Society is a pleasure to attend.

Tax season is over.  I always wonder how Gary makes it with so little sleep and such long hours, but he does.  Now it is baseball season, so I guess that makes up for it.

Stephen and Chris are still working away.  Chris got his car fixed and new tires to boot.

Happy May.

March Happenings

Apparently, Kate could arrive at any moment.  She has, however, chosen not to, so we will have to wait until she is good and ready.  Kate’s room is all ready.  Lily isn’t quite sure about all of this.  She says the baby is going to live at our house.  I definitely don’t think that is going to happen.  Lily and April both have the stomach flu, so we hope they GET WELL SOON and please don’t give it to us.

We have had a wonderful March and I hope we can look forward to an even nicer April (weather wise I mean).  I have enjoyed walking and riding my bike and can happily say that I did not waste the good exercise weather this year.

Grandma and Grandpa were here this weekend.  Stacie and Boyd had dinner on Sunday.  Stacie made some scones that were pretty much to die for and Erin made some equally great rolls.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Yesterday I got a cortisone shot in my back to take care of a pinched nerve that has been killing me.  They said it might take 5 days to work, but I feel better already and am greatly blessed by modern medicine.  The shot wasn’t too comfortable but so far the result has been marvelous.

Sam is getting ready for the huge Phoenix Children’s Choir Gala.  The tickets are $125 a piece and they sold out.  It is supposed to be quite the grand event.  Sam has lots of rehearsals in two weeks to get ready.  Sam didn’t make all state this year, but just wait until next year!

Chris got rear ended on the freeway.  He said at least it was a nice day to be stuck waiting for the highway patrol.  The picture of his car didn’t look too bad.

It’s March so Gary is working every minute on tax returns.  I don’t know how he keeps the hours that he does, because I would be dead.  Baseball starts soon.

My Aunt ReNee died a couple of days ago.  She was one of my favorite aunts.  She tried to teach me to play the piano, without much help from me because I didn’t practice much.  She played the organ for Gary and my wedding and made the best dipped chocolates ever.  She was also quite the story teller.  She came to Arizona with my mom when Chris was born.  She was regaling us with hilarious story after hilarious story and making me laugh so hard things started to hurt.  I finally had to beg her to stop.  She had a wonderful life with challenges as we all have.  I’m sure she and my Uncle Ralph are very happy to be together again.

Only about 40 more days left of school.  Yes!

P.S.  Kate arrived on April 6 at 11:51 a.m.  She is beautiful and we love her.

Michelangelo?

I was going to Arizona Mills the other day to do some shopping.  Stephen said to me, "Hey, Old Navy has Michelangelo shirts.  Could you get me one?"  Of course my mind goes to the artist, the painter of the Sistine Chapel, David, etc.  I thought maybe they had a shirt like this one with a fig leaf place in a strategic location.

So, I'm looking all over for a shirt like this.  Couldn't find one.  I finally gave up and decided to check out without the shirt.  As I'm ready to check out, I asked the clerk about the Michelangelo shirts.

He replied,  "Oh, Michelangelo, the ninja turtle."  Duh, I should have known, Stephen, Chris and April watched that cartoon every day. (April would HATE it when they would call her April O'neill.)

Stephen is now the proud owner of a Michelangelo t-shirt.

January Happenings

When last we corresponded, April was writing the newsletter while I was busily making Christmas cookies.  I love December, but I like January because it is like the calm after the storm.  

We all had a very Merry Christmas around here.  It was especially fun to watch Lily.  We went to church.  Sam sang a solo.  Chris gave me a Kindle Fire which I have had a lot of fun with.  Especially since I can take it to church and it has all the scriptures plus the George Albert Smith manual.  No more heavy scriptures for me.  It also has the internet.  What more could I want, oh yes, games and books!  I love technology.

We started off January with our anniversary--31 years.  Gary and I took a trip to Sedona and stayed in Oak Creek Canyon at a bed and breakfast called the Canyon Wren Cabins.  Oak Creek Canyon is one of my most favorite place in Arizona, probably because it reminds me of Utah.  We went hiking and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  The weather was perfect.  We had a fire in the fireplace in our cabin every night.  The breakfasts were yummy.  We got a homemade brownie every day.  We found some great restaurants in Sedona--Mexican, Italian, and a sandwich shop that had the most delicious soft bread ever.  Fun times.

Sam jumped right back into PCC.  This Saturday is singing regionals for school.  Sam has been working hard on his solo and sight reading. His voice teacher has been a huge help.  Good luck to Sam next Saturday!  Break a leg!

April and I got Lily some new spring clothes.  She is insisting on wearing them now however, even though the weather isn’t totally cooperating.  She also insists that the new baby’s name is “Cake” even though all of us have tried to tell her that it is “Kate.”

Tax season has started for Gary, so he is getting very busy.  Lily likes to help him with the garden and loves to eat the broccoli.

I jumped right back into school also.  The second graders have been working on “carrying and borrowing.”  The new term is regrouping.  Whatever it is called, some of them are having a hard time.  They almost had me convinced that 2 is greater than 9.  Needless to say, we have some work to do with a few of them.

I must say this whole Relief Society President thing is a little weird for me.  Nothing like getting a new calling to see oneself in a whole new light.  I see my strengths, but I also see things about myself that I wish I was a whole lot better at.  I have to say my favorite part is feeling the guidance of the Holy Ghost.  Anyway, I’m sure the more I work at it, the better I will get with the Lord’s help. 

Bad Behavior at Frys

April, Lily and I went to Frys on Thursday to pick up a few things for dinner.  Lily loves to ride in the car attached to the cart.  As we were walking to the store from the parking lot, we observed the following:  Apparently someone in a truck accidentally almost ran over someone or simply got to close to them.  All of a sudden the "f" word starting flying along with the middle finger salute.  As the woman in the truck was backing up, one of the men standing there hit her window and challenged the woman in the truck to a fight.  (By the way, the truck had handicapped license plates on it.)

I have to wonder--what were they thinking?  Does swearing and flipping the bird make one tougher?  Why are some people so aggressive?  I don't know, but they looked liked total idiots to everyone standing there watching them.  And I wonder why some of the kids at school act the way they do.