Baptism and Blessing

Last weekend I had the privilege to fly to Utah to attend the baptism of my oldest nephew, Joshua, and the blessing of my youngest niece, Noelle. The baptism and blessing were both so beautiful. I was glad I was able to come and be a part of this special time in my family's life.

It was also the first time I met my newest niece, Victoria Noelle. Noelle is such a small little thing, but very beautiful. My brother and sister-in-law have some of the cutest children on this planet (but I am not biased or anything). It's amazing how all seven children are so different in looks and personalities. They were so much fun to play with this weekend. I really miss them now that they live in Utah and I am in southern Arizona.

Since it was Joshua's day, I want to tell you a little about my buddy. Joshua is such a sweet boy. He always has a smile and lightens the room when he walks in. He was SO EXCITED to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. When he came out of the water, he just beamed, even more than he already does naturally. Joshua is now anticipating the day when he will receive the Aaronic Priesthood. He is already practicing passing the sacrament as much as he can. For church the day after the baptism, I sat a little away from my family during sacrament meeting so I could interpret the meeting for my sister who is deaf. We were sitting kind of in the middle of the room off to the side and my back was to the pulpit. As the sacrament was being passed, I was skipped and I had to ask my sister to hand me the bread. Joshua noticed this, so when the water came around, he personally took the water tray to me so I could partake of that part of the sacrament. It was really cute to see him carefully walking the water to me. I just flash-fowarded (is that a word?) four years when he will be doing that for real. How time is flying so fast now, those four years will be over before we know it.

I could go on about Joshua, but I'll end there. He is a very good boy and I am grateful to be his aunt.

Goals for the New Year

It's February 1st, so it's a good time to declare my goals for the new year. :o)

This year, I really, really want to walk a marathon. I tried to do it last year, but it didn't work out. So this year, I will train and prepare to walk a marathon in October. I am going to try to sign up for the St. George, UT marathon (because it is one of three in the country that is on Saturday, and because I have family there), but I am not sure if they allow walkers. If they don't allow them, I will map out 26 miles around the city where I live and make my own marathon. I actually think that will be a lot of fun. My sister said she would set up booths at different points to give me water and snacks. I am really excited about this.

In preparation of my marathon, I've been walking long distances every Saturday. I have a long way to go to reach 26 miles...the farthest I've been is six miles so far. Every month I will add a few miles more until I can walk 26. This is my major goal for this year.

Other goals include:

- Relearn to play the piano (or learn play it better than I did before)
- Read my scriptures more faithfully
- Stop procrastinating little things
- Plant and harvest a garden
- Travel somewhere fun
- Communicate better with people (write more emails, blog more diligently, call people more)

So yeah. That's it in a nutshell. I love the beginning of a new year. It gives you an opportunity to re-evaluate your life and make goals. This will be a good year!

At last...

I went to my Visiting Teaching group tonight and was indirectly told I needed to update my blog. I KNOW, I KNOW!! It has been far too long. This month has been crazy busy, though. I didn't realize how much work there is as a Stake Young Women Secretary. Now we are in the Ward Conference cycle, and I've had to make posters for our Sunday lesson, bookmarks for each girl and their leaders, write and give a portion of the lesson, gather information about the ward YW presidencies (and we've had so many changes in the past two months!!... Every ward has either had a complete change or had three or more changes in counselors or advisers. CRAZY!), and get information about the class presidencies for the priesthood leaders to read over the pulpit when sustaining the church leadership. And we've only been to two of the eight ward conferences so far. On top of that, I've attended three YW presidency meetings (one with the Aaronic Priesthood leaders and Stake Presidency rep) in the last three weeks. And two camp meetings, even though camp is in July. I created and passed out posters and handouts for the upcoming Winter Ball (a formal dance for the youth ages 14 and up hosted by the Stake YW leaders). I've been to one New Beginnings (in Douglas...an hour drive from here) and there are more to go to in the next few weeks (which, by the way, I am super excited about. I love the Young Women's program and I am really glad I am back in this auxiliary!). I am not complaining; I am just letting you know how busy I've been. I really do love this calling.

Aside from my church calling, I've been to two different book groups (I hosted one of them), I attended an office Holiday party (where I won an IPOD shuffle ... WOOT!), hosted a LOST party, went to a surprise birthday party for a friend, helped decorate a wedding cake, taught an American Sign Language class to the 3rd Ward Laurels (young women group ages 16 and 17), set up my mom's new TV to her impossibly difficult entertainment system, did some minor plumbing for my mom, and went to my visiting teaching group tonight. So yes...I've been REALLY BUSY this month. Almost too busy to even breath, let alone blog. I've only had one night a week with nothing to do for the past four weeks. And on those days I just want to sit and veg and catch up on whatever TV I've been missing (which hasn't been a lot lately. I've really cut down on TV watching...it doesn't seem as important since certain events last year) or whatever book I'm reading. February is shaping up to be just as busy, but I will try to be more diligent at blogging. I have some things I really want to blog about, but I just haven't had a chance.

Oh, and all the above happened AFTER 5pm. I also work full time and I have a VERY FULL work day as well, sometimes working 10 hour days. I really love my job, though, so that makes it easier. It is so fun and everyday is different. The days go by quickly and I accomplish a lot in a day, so I feel very fulfilled. It was a very good change and I am glad I moved jobs.

So I apologize I haven't been very good at blogging this month, but I hope you understand what I've been up against. :o)

Ghost Town Adventure

I love adventures. I love to see new sites and discover new places. However, I always seem to go far away (across oceans or state lines) to have these adventures. But there are SO MANY cool places just minutes from where I live and I never seem to take the time to go see them. Well, that all changed. On January 2, my mom, sister, and I decided to find some Ghost Towns nearby...there are dozens in my county alone (most are more ruins than standing structures, but they are still cool).

So we began our adventure in search of Contention City. We drove to the location that Google Map pointed us too, but all we found was the beginning of a trail to the Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate. We decided to make the 3 mile round trip hike. It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny with a cool breeze. Perfect for hiking.


The trail we began on met up with the San Pedro Trail (which used to be the train tracks for this area. The tracks have been removed, so it's now just the bed).

This next picture you can see the San Pedro trail from a distance. Notice the copper deposits left by the many trains that passed over this trail.

Once we got on the San Pedro Trail, we only had 1/4 mile left before we arrived at the Presidio. We didn't know what to expect when we got there, but we were eagerly anticipating exploring a Ghost Town.

Finally, we arrived.


We looked around, but all we could see was this structure. Something told us this was not the presidio.

The sign above was the beginning of another trail...this time it was a 1/2 mile circle to see the presidio. We were tired, but we had come this far, so we continued onward. We ran into the San Pedro River, which had some water following in it. It was very beautiful.

Finally, the trail took us into an area where the remains of a huge adobe structure still stood. The site was abandoned in 1781. The following is what is left of the chapel.

This is the remains of the commander's quarters.

There wasn't much left standing. The last plaque on the trail was titled "Abandonment" and it stated "The hardships of Terrenate -- climate, isolation, inadequate supplies, and successful Apache raids -- led Spain to abandon the site after only five years. While Terrenate dissolved back into the dessert landscape, other more successful Spanish forts and missions grew into major communities of the present Southwest."

We didn't know what the Presidio of Santa Cruz de Terrenate was before we went to find it, but when we arrived at our next Ghost Town, Fairbank, we found a model of the presidio. This is what it looked like back in 1781:

As I mentioned above, we also explored another Ghost Town called Fairbank. This is more like what I envisioned Ghost Towns to be...structures still standing but abandoned.

We ended our day by discovering a new restaurant in Bisbee, another really old town founded in 1880, but this one is still inhabited. It is a really cool town to explore.

So we had a very fun adventure and we didn't even have to travel very far to find these great discoveries. And there is still more to see.

A Gift for you...

Here is my Christmas gift to you: The recipe for the award winning Chocolate Chip Cookies. With permission from Christy, enjoy...

---

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mix together in a large bowl:

• 1 heaping cup brown sugar
• 2 cubes butter cold out of fridge (cut butter up)

Add to brown sugar mixture:

• ½ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Mix until creamy.

In separate bowl mix:

• 2-½ cups flour
• 5 oz. pkg. Instant vanilla pudding
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Add flour mixture to creamy mixture:
Blend 3-4 minutes

Add 1 whole bag of chocolate chips

Don’t roll or use a cookie scoop. Use spoon. Grease on your hands will break it down. Don’t use baking stone. Use un-greased cookie sheet. 350º for 11-12 minutes. No more, no less. They will still look a little doughy and light brown when you take them out. Leave them on the pan to keep cooking.

The Day After Christmas Sales!

I saved $210! I love saving money! That means I can spend it somewhere else, preferably somewhere exotic or European. But I am not a typical female. I don't normally like shopping. I really hate hunting for whatever. I much prefer going to the store for specific purposes and getting out as soon as possible. But there are two days a year that I think shopping is absolutely fun and exciting: Black Friday and the day after Christmas. This year, I saved $900 on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and $210 on 26 December. I got some things I've been wanting for months, but I waited to get them on an extremely good sale. On Black Friday, I get practical things. For example, this year I bought two computer monitors, a thumb drive, an external hard drive, a treadmill, and other little things.

However, on the day after Christmas, I get Christmas decorations, dishes, wrapping paper, tags, boxes, lights, etc that I put away until the next December. You can save some good money by waiting until after Christmas to buy these things. Anyway, here is my loot that I will get to enjoy next year:

An Unexpected Christmas Gift!

On Christmas Day, my mom, my sisters, and I went to visit my dad's grave. When we arrived we were given an unexpected Christmas gift:

We were not told the grave marker was here. We expected it to be installed in the early part of next year. So we were very pleased (well, as pleased as you can be in this situation) to see it set up, ready for us on Christmas Day.

Here are some other images of the grave yard. It is surrounded by the Huachuca Mountains, mountains my dad always loved. It is really peaceful there, so we feel blessed that it could be my dad's last resting place.


By the way, the "No Empty Chairs" at the bottom on my dad's tombstone is one of his famous sayings. He always said "No empty chairs at our celestial table", meaning he wants all of his family together in the eternities. We thought it was appropriate to put on the marker...it serves as a reminder to us to do what we need to do (keep the commandments, honor our covenants, choose the right, and endure to the end) to be able to be reunited with our husband/father/brother/friend again.