You know it's hot when........

....Snickers favorite hangout is the sink! When the outdoor thermometer starts climbing up past 90 this is Snickers favorite place to sleep. She started doing this soon after arriving in Arizona almost five years ago. Good thing this isn't a sink we use very often! Note how she barely recognized my presence - napping is more important!

Melissa's baptism......

Was spending 28 hours driving worth it? YES! Melissa turned 8 last month and was baptized and confirmed on May 1st. There were about 40 people there - didn't get a picture of everyone but here is one of the family - Larry, Kathy, Gwen (Joyce's mom), Joyce, Todd, Melissa and her great grandma (Gwen's mom).

The program.

Duchess on the way home. She wormed her way onto my pillow which was on the console between the front seats. She travelled the whole way home like this!

Another shot from the front this time.

Fishing Derby 2011 at Pacana Park.....

I think we've been to the fishing derby every year since we moved to Maricopa.

Today Duchess and I walked to Pacana Park to see the kiddos fish. There were 150 that could sign up and with their $5 registration fee they got a fishing pole with reel and accessories to fish. This event is a catch and release kinda deal. There was a barbeque after the 90 minute contest.

Duchess liked to sit and let the kids pet her - you know those little ones love distractions and she was a great one!

Here's Duchess taking a little break.

This little girl posed for me. What you may not see at first is that she has two identical fish on the line. Yep! She had two hooks and caught these little beauties at the same time! What luck! Click on the picture and you'll be able to at least see the two tails!

I took several pictures of this young lady after she caught this catfish. She did NOT want to get close to it. Nope, not at all. But the camera was ready and with some encouragement she did her best to get closer!

Notice the fists? This was sooooooooo out of her comfort zone.

Duchess and I were sitting on the grass so my angle wasn't very good but I'm sure they got some great shots of her with her prized fish - something for posterity to see!

Maricopa Stake Relief Society Program.....

Today was the culmination of several months of preparation for our Stake Relief Society Women's Program. We had a wonderful, wonderful event!!!! The food was superb not only in taste but also presentation. The committee outdid themselves!!! The decorating committee lined the walls with silhouettes of families and adorned each of the 25 tables with vases filled with white branches that had photos of families and sayings hanging from them. Awesome! The Young Women provided classes for the children and were great at working with them. Thank you! The music was so perfect! The first number was a children's chorus of four boys and four girls ranging in age form about 6 to 10. They were awesome. The second musical number was performed by a soloist accompanied on the piano - it, too, was perfect. The last number was sung by three women who were just plain amazing - they were accompanied on the piano as well. The words to each of these numbers were so inspiring! The speakers were our Stake Relief Society Presidency who spoke about spending time with our families, communication, and family values. Our Stake President then spoke to us about the importance of women in families. We truly have awesome leaders!
Table decorations.Children's classes - ages from toddlers to 11 year olds.




Doyleen & Debbie prepping brunch.Silouettes on the walls.

The brunch menu was a breakfast casserole, fruit cocktail with whipped cream and a cherry on top, a slice of orange, and muffins.



Our Stake President.

About 200 were fed both temporally and spiritually today!

Our Stake Relief Society Presidency - me (Secretary), Barbara (President), Jamilee (1st Counselor), Rhonda (2nd Counselor)

Indexing Goal Reached.........................

It is exciting to have reached this new goal of over 20,000 (see the number at the bottom on the left of the second image) names I've indexed from documents such as this one - a census record.


Below is a copy of my home page for indexing. I have been working mostly on the 1930 US Federal Census. If you click on this it will enlarge and you can see what the points are and what they mean. These points are derived from the difficulty of the document being indexed.

I absolutely love the beauty of this desert home of mine and especially at sunrise and sunset. The first two pictures were taken last night about 5 minutes apart and in two different locations. Too bad my camera doesn't capture the true depth of these colors. I thank Heavenly Father for His artisic work!

Sometimes it's really, really hard to tell where one end of Snickers stops and the other begins! Can you tell? (Her tail is a great hint!)

Doing the Puyallup....

Doing the Puyallup in September is totally different than Doing the Puyallup in November. While I love the September version, I really, really love doing it in November because it meant being with family!!


Ty, Matthew, Karen, Amy.

Taunie, Serina, Tierra, Taleah with Spice in the back.


Aleana, Trent, Curtis, Janel, Rowen

Aleana & Amy.

Rowen cracks me up!

Aleana spending time with Grandpa and Great Uncle Mark.

Matthew, Amy, Ty, Karen

Curtis and Grandpa

Rowen's turn with Great Uncle Mark and Grandpa.

Newest Granddog Duke - he's the same age as Curtis - 3 months.

Aleana having a quiet moment with Grandpa.

Lunchtime for Aleana and Rowen.

This is something I have not seen before - peanut butter and sprinkles! Yummy!

Good times, great memories, wonderful family. Life is great!