It's that time again!

Wow!! Where does time go? I am working hard with the choir and our first performance this year is December 7th! That is not very far off. In fact, week after next ( the 24th ) we are recording. The good news is, they sound GREAT. Monday night at rehersal they took my breath away. Awesome. I have 80 people signed up this year and it's going to be wonderful. I just have to keep myself focused and on track through the 14th of December. And....in the middle of all this I am organizing our women to go to Phoenix next week for Women of Faith. I have made the hotel reservations, got the tickets, arranged everyone's transportation and I am looking forward to getting away for a few days with all my girlfriends and having fun. There are 30 of us going and we have great seats. Can't wait.

Since we will be in Phoenix we will shop. Oh yea, that's a great side feature of the trip. We go up a day early so we can shop and play. Phoenix has REAL malls. Yuma is mall deprived. You haven't seen anything until you've seen 20 or 30 women from Yuma unleashed in a mall. I consider myself a power shopper. My endurance isn't what it once was and I can't do it for very long so I've become a pro at spotting what I want in a heartbeat and getting in and out. I am not a great browser. I will also admit most of my Christmas shopping is already done. Yep I got on it early this time. Except for John. I really struggle with what to get him.

I wish you all the best as you head into the holiday season and I pray you make blessed memories.

I got it!

I was driving in to town yesterday and I suddenly realized what the first sign of fall in Yuma is. When it is 105 it is hard to feel fall. Well anyway, my revelation was ...... a yard sale sign! Yep, that's it. Yuma doesn't have yard sales in the summer and when they do have them they are held on Friday and Saturday. Almost never on Sunday. I passed a half dozen yard sale signs in my neighborhood alone. Snow birds love yard sales. I think they haul stuff down here with them just so they can have a yard sale. Which brings me to the second sign, snow birds ( or winter visitors ) are arriving in a steady stream. The grocery store is much busier and the street traffic has really picked up. Time to leave the house a little earlier to get whereever I'm going on time. And for me the final sign of fall is the start up of rehersals for the Christmas tree program. John is so sure that since October is just a few days away, he will be sitting out on the deck in the evening watching tv, so....he is right now out cleaning off the deck and furniture out there getting ready. He plans to watch Monday night football out there. I think the forecast for Monday is 101 which means it might be down to 98 by kick off. But, that's his plan. It's fall alright. I'm thinkin I need to go buy a new outfit for fall.

Benefits of 4 Seasons

I loved being up in the northwest for a vacation. You could feel fall in the air. On our drive over the mountains from Seattle to Yakima there were even some noticeable changes starting in the trees. In Yuma we miss that. On the way home Monday, there was fresh snow on the mountains around Salt Lake. How pretty. While we were in Yakima I went shopping with my mom and aunt. I loved the fall and winter clothes in Macy's! Love the fall colors and I have always loved sweaters. I just can't buy that stuff to wear here. It doesn't get cold enough here for them. That got me to thinking about the seasons we have here. We basically have 2 seasons here.

1. Way to freaking hot! and...
2. Pretty comfortable.

The summer is the way too hot and my summer wardrobe consists of sandals, cool short skirts and tank tops. Oh and a cardigan to wear in restaurants and stores where they keep their thermostat on 60. My winter wardrobe consists of longer skirts, jeans, tee shirts, and a sweater to wear in the restaurants that still keep the thermostat on 60. Those guys must love the power company. We don't really have much in the way of spring or fall here, it just sort of jumps from summer to winter and back again. The trees here don't lose their leaves or change color so we don't see a change there. There are no daffodils or crocus popping their heads up early to let you know warm weather is coming. I miss the 4 seasons. I slways liked the change and I love to sit inside and watch it snow.

However, all is not lost. I buy clothes in the new fall colors that are light weight. I know it's fall when I start practices for the Christmas program, and when my friend start returning. I know it is winter when there are so many people here you can hardly move, I know it's spring when my Easter choir performs and I know summer is almost here when the neighbors all leave. So I guess whereever you live you still see the benefits of 4 seasons.

Love the green!

So far on our vacation we have only had one rainy day, yesterday. Today we are in Lynden and have been out seeing the town. We had a great lunch at a dutch restaurant and I got to visit a couple of quilt shops. I bought the fabric to make a snowman wall hanging that is cute. John, bless his heart, just patiently follows us girls around. He doesn't try to hurry us or anything. I'm sure he was more than glad when we decided to check out the restaurant. We also bought a dutch apple pie at the bakery for desert tonight. Ymmm....Teresa and Christy just went to the store to get ice cream to go with it. Maybe we'll just have pie and ice cream for dinner! So you see, this vacation is involving a lot of eating (as usual) and when we get back home it will be diet time.

Aside from the great food, the flowers here are just beautiful. All of the green lawns and trees plus beautiful flowers everywhere make this a nice change of pace for a desert girl. I even enjoyed the rain yesterday.

Where would we be without Faith

Every year when it is time to prepare for the Christmas program or the Easter program, the attacks start. I know these are something satan would really like to bring to a halt. Every year I wonder what he's going to try this year. One year we were in the middle of giving a performance and a car hit a power pole down the highway from us and blacked out the whole valley. We lost all power....our sound, lights etc. We finished that song acapella under the romantic glow of 70 booklights. While that actually sounded very nice, we were unable to continue that performance. But most people returned the next night to see the whole program. A couple of years ago at a rehersal for the Easter program, I slipped on the stage steps and broke my foot. The good news is I only did it in front of 40 people, not the whole congregation. See, there's always an up side. Last year after they got the tree built for the choir some kids from the mobile home park nearby came over and kicked out a bunch of the light panels on the tree. They must be hard up for entertainment. Over the years we just roll with whatever comes out way. This years problem is already apparent. The joint replacement in my left shoulder has failed and needs to be completely replaced! RATS!! I will not have it done until after Christmas and hopefully I can make it until after Easter. I have to be careful with it or it will dislocate and I can tell you that really hurts. So here you go prayer warriors...please pray that I can maintain until at least after Christmas. I have great faith that this will all work out.

Monkey teases tiger

This is a brave or stupid monkey. I liked it when he pulls the tail of the tiger. Probably a good thing they were only cubs.

Baby moose playing

This is so cute.

Our dogs rule!

Some of you have asked me to post pictures of our dogs. Thor is my Maltese and without a doubt the smartest one of the group...at least he has me well trained. Stanley is the black and white Shitzu/poodle - we call that a shit-poo. Then there's Bubbles the cock-a-poo. Named because she is the color of champagne. She is our senior dog. She's about 12 now and her eyesight isn't good, neither is her hearing. Or maybe she just has selective hearing. They all get along great and as long as we keep well supplied with treats and cater to their every whim they allow us to live with them. All three of them have to be groomed so every 4 weeks they go to the doggy beauty shop for a new do. We spend $105 a month on dog grooming!! I spend about $30 a year on my hair. There's something wrong with that picture. We are blessed to have a friend that will take all 3 of them when we go on vacation and in return we take the lovely Patches when they go. All in all they are an entertaining group and we wouldn't ever be without a dog .... or three.

Desert Entertainment

You probably have to live here to understand but we find the monsoon season very entertaining. A lot of times at night we have spectacular lightening shows and I am always amazed how it can just pour in one block or two and go over just 3 or 4 blocks and they might not have had a drop. At 3 this morning (yes that's 3 am), John and I were sitting out on our deck watching it rain so hard the street in front of our house was completely under water. That little shower was over in 30 minutes. But there's our entertainment factor, we jump out of bed and rush outside at 0 dark thirty to watch it rain. :) You have to be prepared to move when it happens because it won't last long. Had it been daylight I would have jumped in the car and driven up the street so I could watch the wash fill up and run. I've even taken pictures of that event! Yep, the photo is the wash up the street from our house.

What's new?

We had a wonderful vacation in Little Rock. The weather was very nice, not too humid, got a little shower every day. Speaking of showers....we came out of the movies on Saturday and it was just starting to rain. Just a drop here and there. Then in a matter of 3 or 4 seconds, it was like God turned a bucket upside down on us. Looking back, it was kind of funny but we couldn't have been any wetter if we had jumped in a pool with all our clothes on! It took my shoes 3 days to dry out. There's a memory for us. We also had great fun feeding french fries to the fish and turtles at a restaurant we went to in Hot Springs. We sat out on the deck by the lake and had wonderful seafood. John came back from this trip 5 lbs heavier, I have avoided the scale. We also did quite a bit of sight seeing and it was nice to see so much green for a change. By contrast, everything looked pretty barren back home. If it weren't for the tormados I wouldn't mind living in Little Rock.

We got back home to heat and humidity. Yep, humidity. The monsoon season has officially started. We got a nice hard rain yesterday afternoon and probably will continue this cycle for a few weeks. For all those people who joke "it's a dry heat", they've never been here in July and August. 106 degrees with 45% humidity is not comfortable.

We are looking forward to vacationing in Washington state in August. Hmm...more green and cooler weather, nice. The kicker is, I made our air reservations months ago with Delta and now they are pulling out of Yuma. While we were in Little Rock, they called and rescheduled us but we were still flying in and out of Yuma. Today I checked my reservation and they had changed us to leaving from Yuma but returning to LA. LA? I called them. I told the agent that LA was a freaking long way from Yuma and how did she suggest we get back to Yuma. She punched her keys and came up with her idea of a great solution. For an additional $350 we could fly to Yuma from LA on United. After a very lengthy conversation, the bottom line is, we are flying out of Phoenix. It is what it is.

Now we just have to diet so we can be ready for the next trip!

It's Too HOT!!

Usually this time of year it might be 100 - 104 now with lows in the low 70's. Saturday it was 115 and Sunday morning when I got up at 4:30 it was 84 out. This is our middle of July thru August temps. Hopefully it will cool off a bit again. Maybe? Needless to say we are really looking forward to our vacation to visit Sam in Little Rock in a couple of weeks. No matter what it is like there it will be a nice break for us.

Since I'm conserving gas and spending more time at home, I am staying busy by reading a lot and quilting. I joined a quilt club that meets on Monday nights and I've learned a lot from the women there. They are so good to help if I have questions. They also make quilts to donate to children that are taken from their homes and put into foster care. The children get to keep these and hopefully they give a little comfort in a stressful time. When my choir practices start up again in the fall, I will miss this group. To that end, I am also working on picking the music for the tree program. The guy who programs the lights on the tree keeps bugging me for the music. You might think it's kind of early for this, but it takes a lot of time to put this together. I've previewed a lot of music and I haven't found the right one yet. I'm beginning to think I might have to cut and paste to get what I want. I like a couple of songs in one, one in another, etc. Then I'd have to rewrite the narration to make it all flow right. This is the first year something hasn't just jumped out at me. I usually have this done by the 1st of July!

I guess I'll go work on the Christmas quilt I'm making. Maybe it will inspire me.

I need a job!

Wow! I think I need a paying job. Our gas bill for my car and John's truck was $700 last month. Add to that how much everything else has gone up and I can only be thankful we aren't trying to feed a big family now. My favorite bread is now $4.32 a loaf. :( I've switched to a different kind. We purchased our airline tickets for our summer trips several months ago, thank goodness. Now I just have to figure out how to go on vacation with one suitcase. That's a problem for me. I am never sure what to take. Will it be hot, too cold, do I need a dress, what shoes....etc. Oh my, what about a coat! You know, when you come from Yuma, you are cold when it is 75 degrees out. I guess if I traveled more I would be better at it. For the past 25 years I traveled in an RV so I could take anything I wanted. That had it's definite advantages but I don't regret getting rid of it. Especially with the price of gas now. How do people go treking all over europe with just a backpack? Maybe I need to take a class on how to pack a suitcase. Is there such a thing? Oh, here's a thought .... I could UPS my stuff to my destination and just fly with my carry-on. Now this has possibilities! That way I could make room for whatever purchases I make during my travels. Oh, this is brilliant. I am going to go ponder this.

The neighborhood

Man, things are really quiet in the neighborhood. There's not too many people here although, there are more than last year. I guess with the price of gas people aren't taking the big trips. A lot of my winter friends left their RV's here and just went north in their cars. I'm sure glad we don't have ours anymore. I'd hate to fill the tank now. It got a whopping 6 miles to the gallon when towing a vehicle. Gas has hit $4.00 here now and I am really cutting back on my running around. We live 15 miles from town and I used to just flit back and forth and think nothing much about it. I remember when noone would have considered living more than 7 miles from where they worked. Look at us now. People in major cities think nothing of spending and hour and a half commuting each way. In their Hummer. I'm thinking horses were a good mode of transportation. They could mow the lawn, fertilize the garden, and get you to the church on time. I'm surprised the tree huggers aren't trying to get legislation passed to abolish cars and bring back livestock. I guess they are too busy making their plane reservations so they can get in the most protests possible. I wonder if they will rethink their position on expanding drilling in this country when they can't afford to heat their homes next winter.

Does anybody sleep?

The older I get, the less I sleep. I wonder why that is. My friends all seem to have the same problem. It doesn't help that my husband gets up at 4:30am every day. The dogs are "trained" to get up that early so even on the weekend they get me up. Good wife that I am, I get up with them and close the bedroom door so John can sleep in. It's kind of like having small children, forever! Thor, my maltese, gets me up between 2 and 3 in the morning EVERY day to go out with him to pee. There's a doggy door they all use at will, but apparently Thor doesn't want to go out in the dark alone. Just a theory. Actually, you can probably see who the one that's well trained around here really is. John and I both have trouble staying awake after 9 pm. Thanks to TIVO we record any TV programs we want to watch. In July I am going to have my 60th birthday. Never thought I'd be so old. At the rate I'm going, I figure by the time I'm 70, I will no longer sleep at all. What do I do with all those hours in the middle of the night? I read, sew, play computer games, pray, worry, etc. Maybe I should get a night job. Employers take note, instead of hiring young people for the night shift, hire seniors. They are awake anyway, and they know how to work!

I'm Refreshed

We had a great vacation with my brother and his wife. After they spent a couple of days here with us, we all went over to San Diego for a few days of fun. We had a great time at Sea World. John and I love to go to Sea World, so much that we have and annual pass! As we were pulling in the parking lot, my brother Paul saw a roller coaster kind of ride and said he wanted to do that. Pat, his wife, said it wasn't for her. Hmm...I love roller coasters! Must run in the family. It was a beautiful day, not hot with a slight breeze. Now remember, to me, the Yuman, 80 is cool. Well, after lunch, we strolled over to the ride and discovered it was kind of a combination coaster, water ride. Brrr..Paul says, come on it's not that bad. Well, I walked over and watched for a few minutes and the people didn't seem to be getting drenched or anything so what the heck, I'm up for it. John and Pat stayed behind as Paul and I joined the line. Let me tell you, we got drenched!! I mean soaked from head to foot, wet stringy hair, no dry spots. I tried to duck in the gift shop at the end of the ride, thought I needed a Sea World beach towel. Paul yanked me out and made me keep moving. Now that light breeze felt like an arctic wind. Pat got a picture of us looking like drowned rats, said she is going to email it out to all the family. Nice. So, I managed to convince the others that a trip through the polar bear exhibit could wait till later. We did however, have a good time together and made plans for our trip up to Seattle in August. John and I also enjoyed having a vacation, the first one since Labor Day. We spent Friday at Coronado Island. I love Coronado Island, it makes me feel kind of like I'm in Hawaii. Now we are looking forward to our next vacation with everyone in Arkansas.

You gotta watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/v/_LHoyB81LnE&hl=en">

Goodbyes are hard

It is that time of the year here when my friends leave to spend their summers in a cooler climate. Sunday the Easter choir will give two performances and they sound wonderful. The music is great. Jean and Judy and I will sing a special during the offering and it will be our last time to sing as a trio this year since they too go north. I miss my friends when they go but I look forward to their return in the fall. After a busy winter, for me it brings a season of more relaxing activities. With only one church service on Sunday John and I will get to go out for breakfast after church again. I love that. :) I get to look forward to vacations this summer to visit all of our family. John and I cherish that time with everyone. Noone ever wants to come to our house for the 4th of July?! Hmmm..maybe if we put in a pool. I pray you all have a blessed Easter.

There's a dog on my quilt

That's the title of this pattern ~ "There's a dog on my quilt." I made this for the back of John's chair and since it is a small throw, I machine quilted it myself. I think it's pretty cute. :)

The days are TOO SHORT

Wow! Easter is so early this year. We only have 2 practices left for the Easter musical performance by the choir. Monday night after practice, John Krueger ( who runs the sound ) asked if I was going to have some power point photos to run with the program. Rats! I need to get that together. Then Tuesday morning someone at the women's Bible study asked me about the tickets for Women of Faith in November. Rats! I need to get those arrangements finalized. So ....what am I doing? Typing this instead of doing what I need to be doing. :) On the plus side of things, we have our air reservations for Little Rock. Laundry ~ I have to do laundry!

Cheap airfares?

I have been pricing airfares to Littlerock from Yuma. We used to just have United flying in here but as of the first of the year Delta does too. They had all this hype about the great fares we can get with Delta. Well ...if we fly out of Yuma on Delta, it will cost us about $600 each! Maybe we could just fly to Salt lake (their hub) and then get a cheaper flight with someone else the rest of the way. Nope! It is $340 RT Yuma to Salt Lake, each. Hmmm....I guess we'll fly out of Phoenix, as usual. Maybe some of you can tell me if I'm missing something here.

More Quilts!

Here are pictures of the two throws I just finished. The Bottom picture of the one laying across the sofa was the first quilt I made.

I want to talk to Jack

Yesterday I popped in to Jack in the Box for a quick lunch. That was my first mistake. They aren't quick. I perused the menu board and ordered the number 8. It said "jumbo cheeseburger combo". Yep, that was for me, a jumbo CHEESE burger. A burger isn't complete without cheese, in my book. I'm patient, I took my book and sat at a table and read for a while. Finally they call a name that I was pretty sure was supposed to be me. These places never get my name right, even spelled right the person calling the name on the order thought it had to be wrong, so she changed it. So....I looked around and when "Marvin" didn't get up, I went up and sure enough, it was me. I looked at the slip and the person who took my order had written very clearly MAVIS. Oh well. I took my tray and returned to my table. I unwrapped my jumbo cheese burger and surprise, surprise, no cheese. I took it back up to the person who took my order. "There is no cheese on the burger". "Did you ask for cheese?" "I asked for a number 8" "Well you have to tell us if you want cheese, some people don't want it." HUH?? I looked back up at the board more closely to see if I had made a mistake. Nope. It very boldy says JUMBO CHEESEBURGER.. I pointed to the board and told her to look, she did, then she said well on her computer screen there are two choices, cheese or not. I asked how in the world was I supposed to know that! It says number 8 I ordered number 8 and I want my cheese. She grumpily took the burger back and put some cheese on it. So here's your lesson for the day.....regardless of what the menu says......if you want cheese, tell them you want cheese. Remember, they hire people who can't read.

I love it!

I finished the top of the quilt for the queen bed in our guest room. I am very pleased with it. It still has to have the batting, backing, and be machine quilted but you can see how it will look. I have really improved since that first throw I made. This one came out the exact size I wanted and I got all the points just right. :)

Vacation's over

I've just sort of kicked back since Christmas. Took a couple of weeks and relaxed a little. In my relaxation mode I read 4 books and made 3 quilts. How fun! I got a new sewing machine for Christmas so I HAD to sew! I made another throw so now I have one for the sofa and one for the love seat. I sent those to my aunt in Oregon to machine quilt for me. She called today and said they are done and she is mailing them back on Tuesday. I can't wait to see them. When I get them back I just have to sew on the binding on them and they will be done. I also made a small table topper of Christmas fabrics and I took a class in machine quilting and quilted that one myself, since it was small. It turned out very nice. And...just today, I finished piecing together the top for a queen sized comforter for the bed in our guest room. I need to sew on the borders and send it to Cecilia to quilt for me. It is way too big for me to do on my machine. With each one I've done, I've gotten better at it and I am surprised (as is the rest of my family) that I love doing it. I guess that is because I love doing puzzles and putting a quilt together is like doing a puzzle. It is fun to watch the patten come together. When I get the two back from my aunt, I will post pictures of them.

So...back to work. The choir has come back together and we are working on our Easter musical. It is a smaller group than was in the tree choir but that is OK.. I don't need 80 for this. I have 40 and I might hit 50 but that is a good sized group for and indoor choir. We will sing the program for 2 service on Easter.

We will be having quite a bit of company for the next couple of months. Different people coming and going but a fun time to spend with friends and family. It is the peak of the tourist season here so it is very busy. My brother and his wife are coming for a visit in April and I am very excited about that!

Check this out

http://www.howmanyofme.com This is kind of fun. I did it and there are 19 of us out there with the name Mavis Ellis. I thought I was probably the one and only!

2008!!

Wow! That sounds so futuristic. It's amazing how the older you get, the faster the time seems to go by. We celebrated last night with friends and since we were at a club, we managed to all actually stay awake until midnight. We had a good time dancing and I especially found it interesting to watch people. I haven't been to a "club" in a very long time. Let me just say that young people are way less inhibited than we were at their age. As I sat there and watched some of them doing what they were doing in their enebriated state, it should not surprise any of them if they find themselves on You Tube some time in the future. There were digital cameras everywhere and those who didn't have a camera, had their camera phone. After toasting the new year in we came home and were in bed by 1 am. I had just gotten to sleep when the phone rings. OMG who calls someone at 1:30 am?! Someone must have died! I answer it and it's Lucas. "Mom, I didn't wake you up did I?" He and Angel and my brother and his wife went on a dinner cruise on Lake Union and watched the fireworks in Seattle from the boat. How fun. They were all calling from the boat. Maybe next year we'll go to Seattle for New Years and do that. Hmmm.

I haven't made any resolutions. I never keep them anyway so this way I don't have to worry about failing at them. I am looking forward to this next year. I am on my 3rd quilt now, got a new sewing machine for Christmas, and I'm signed up for some classes. I'm having fun with it and can't wait to start the classes.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and the the New year brings you endless blessings.