Yay for Chipotle!

I received an email from a colleague today at school that Chipotle was serving free burritos, salads, etc to Arizona teachers for Teacher Appreciation Day! I told Pat and Carlie (and Ellena)and I met her there and Rachel was close behind. I was the only one who really had my required TUSD ID but Pat showed her state-required fingerprint card and we got our free stuff! It was delicious as usual and very nice of Chipotle. We thanked them.

Generous gift from Beatle-phile brother

On my day off this week (Thursday)a large box arrived at my house. Actually, guitar-sized! I opened it and it was indeed a beautiful new guitar . The guitar pictured in the link is actually an Epiphone model but it is identical to mine. It is a Tokai copy of the Gibson J160E that John Lennon used to play on stage.

The story is that when my brothers and I went to West Covina over Easter to help Dad move to his new place, Robert brought this and another acoustic so he and I could jam which we did! I called him when I opened the box to thank him and he said that he had seen the picture he took of me posing with the Tokai with a mile-wide grin and thought that I should have it! He said that he had too many guitars and I didn't have enough! So he sent it along with a hard-shell case. Well, I was speechless (for once in my life). That night I headed right over to my friend Jerry Figuiera's house (another Beatle fan) and showed him and we also jammed a bit. I love it and have already played many Beatle songs on it. Thanks, Rob!

It was thirty years ago today...

Today is Pat's and my 30th wedding anniversary. Here some things we have done together over those years: Bought three new cars and a half dozen used ones. Bought two houses, rented two and rented an apartment and the upstairs of a house. Received four college degrees. Traveled through twelve states and two countries (Mexico and Italy). Served in many church callings. Bought a used dryer, a new washer and dryer and a new water heater. Put on an entire new roof on our house. Hiked to Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon. Spent many summer weekends camping during family reunions. Seen James Taylor (3 times) Neil Diamond, Allison Krauss and Union Station, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Huey Lewis and the News, and The Jetts in concert. Laughed a lot, cried a little, fought even less. Buried three of our parents. Been to Disneyland a couple dozen times, Kartchner Caverns twice and Sea World, San Diego Wild Animal Park, Knott's Berry Farm, Old Tucson Studios, The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum (where we lost Wendy and found her again), the Grand Canyon and Colossal Cave once each. Owned two dogs. Made and served hundreds (maybe thousands) of snow cones. Hosted about 50 kids' birthday parties. Bought about 25 live Christmas trees. Been to about ten Arizona Diamondback games. Put in and maintained a large vegetable garden. Attended many school plays, musicals and singers' shows. Walked out of a show in Las Vegas. Been teachers for about 20 combined years. Attended the temple weddings of two of our daughters. And most importantly, welcomed into our family five beautiful, talented and precious children... and (so far) four sweet-beyond-description grandchildren.

In the future we plan to... Serve a full-time mission for the Church. Go on a cruise to the western Caribbean (February of 2009). Visit Hawaii and return to Europe some day. Attend the temple weddings of our other three children. Hopefully welcome yet more grandchildren into our family. Wear out our lives in the service of others!

It has been a fun run so far and we look forward to many more years ahead.

Very Pun-ny

Dad and I were attending the mandatory camp meeting after church last Sunday. The leaders were introducing the new theme for camp as B.L.I.S.S. (being linked in the strength of sisterhood). They were explaining the stake had first chosen BLING and had even written a rap to go with it but President Alston KO'd it as too worldly. He wanted them to chose something that had a scripture reference, so they chose 'bliss' instead. I saw President Nielsen after the meeting and said there was a scripture reference for 'bling'! It is "Bling your tithes and offerings to the storehouse..." He told me I had been hanging around Dad too long!

To the Bat Cave..!

Last Friday night we had some overnight guests at the old Bertoglio hacienda. Pat's twin Pam and her husband Jeff came in from Pennsylvania. Also billeted with us were Pat's sister Sharon, brother Bob and his wife Karen and sister-in-law Jane who was accompanied by her 8 year old grandson, Dylan. Dylan's grandma had taken him to the toy store where he bought (with his own money) an Lego Star Wars spaceship which he and I began to work on right away. I'm not as good at these new-fangled Legos as with the old-school ones!

Pat whipped up some of her famous and delicious tortilla soup and we all ate. That night we got out the Wii video game and made our arms sore playing sports; bowling, tennis, and baseball. We also introduced Jeff to "Guitar Hero". We sat around and watched old 16mm home movies of Pat's folks' trip to Hawaii and second generation "hot rod" races.

In the morning after a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes and waffles we all piled into cars and after the arrival of yet another sister, Diana and her husband Lou, and caravaned 45 miles and minutes east to tour the famous Kartchner Caverns. You may not know that Pat's family is related to the Kartchners, the original owners of the land where the caves are located. Lois Martineau Kartchner was Pat's dad's oldest sister. There are two caves to visit but one closes down for a few weeks every year as it turns into a "bat nursery" which cannot be disturbed. So we went through the other tour (the second time for Pat and me) and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. The ranger did require that all the contents of Dylan's jean pockets be carried by an adult (which turned out to be me). They keep a strict control of what could possibly be left in the cave. So I carried Lego R2D2 and Luke (and his light saber) along with a marble egg and stand and two sea shells. Pat says that the ranger (a lady) had to have been a former schoolteacher to know that if and 8-year-old boy had something in his hands, he had stuff in his pockets that could be potentially permanently installed among the wonders of the cave.

After the tour we watched the visitors center movie and got back into our cars. Jane and Sharon and Dylan drove on to Tombstone to tourist around and the rest of us headed back to Tucson. There, Bob and Karen and Diana and Lou headed back to Phoenix and points north leaving Pam and Jeff with us. We persuaded them to stay the night and took them to Midtown Molina's for some good Mexican food (what you have to do in Tucson with out-of-town guests.

When we got home we played Mexican train (a domino game... not really a must with out-of-town guests) with Scott when he came home from work, ate ice cream and generally stayed up too late and laughed a lot. It was very fun visiting with all the relatives. And Pam and Jeff talked us into going on a cruise with them next year! They have been a couple of times and have raved (like every other cruiser anybody has ever talked to) about the experience. We are going to the western Carribean. We are very excited and told Pam to pay the deposit when they got home before we changed our minds! Please come back for more visits, you family folks! It was such fun and too short!

to my darlings

i just saw this on my news feed for the "funny quote of the day":

"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city."

Love you all! :)

w

we love papa

yesterday trevor and i were working on our taxes in the office, and took turns distracting ellena from wanting to 'help'. i gave her dad's newest cd, '10 winters and 10 springs' to look at. she kept pointing to her papa and smiling, laughing and kissing the picture.

loves her papa so good!