What a storm!

Last night we had an incredible storm! My mother in law called me to say that she and Daddy were outside on their back porch to watch the storm come in and it looked like Tempe was having a light show. The weather reported over 10,000 lightning strike in an hour. Samuel and I went outside for a while to watch and listen and seriously the thunder didn't stop for hours. It was one continual roll of thunder for as long as we listened. The weather also reported that some areas of the valley received over 1.48 inches of rain (Officially, the National Weather Service reported 5.48 inches year total at Sky Harbor International Airport. Last year, 0.74" fell for the entire monsoon season.) and had wind gusts of 100 miles per hour in Tempe. I got up this morning to survey the damages and to my surprise it wasn't too bad. We usually have a down limb or two or parts of the barn missing, but this time it was only the shade for the area right outside my father's house that was downed. The rain was seriously so unusual that I called my father to ask him if he was OK out in his house by himself. It sounded like it was raining baseballs. Every once in a while I would open the door and look to see if it was hail but I couldn't see any and then too at those time I would look at the trees and there would be absolutely no movement in them. It was crazy! But after the storm we have been blessed with a most beautiful sun rise. I tried to capture a picture, I don't know if it will translate but here I have tried. I checked the weather report for today and it looks like we are going to have humidity around 77% and a high around 101. Crazy! I sure hope that all of our family and friends that live out of town have a wonderful day, I know that I will.

The Queen say this...

This is a completely random e-mail. Samuel and I went to a Diamond Backs game tonight and we had so much fun. Jenny and Shawn went with us and she took lots of pictures but with her camera so I don't have any pictures yet. Any way I came home and started looking at blogs and enjoying reading them and looking at pictures and thought that I would go and look at some of my pictures on my computer. I love to take pictures of everything but especially I am family famous for taking pictures of hearts. So I looked in my heart folder and along with my hearts is a picture of my make-up sponge. I squeeze out my Mary Kay make-up onto a sponge and then apply liberally. It has actually been 2 years ago that I took this picture and I can't even remember if I have already sent it to everyone but when I saw it I got such a chuckle remembering it again. The resulting squeeze on the sponge was completely random. No kidding! I looked at it and thought, 'Oh my goodness something must be wrong with my toe' you know, like I was getting a warning or something (Peggy knows what I'm talking about). So I look down at my toe half expecting to find a big bug or death written all over it and then to my great astonishment..... nothing was there. Just a funny random message on my make-up sponge, nothing else, but believe me when I say it was truly random and so legible. Queen Susabelle says this, 'Random acts of kindness begin with just one 'toe' pointed in the right direction. How is that for philosophy to begin your day on?

Fire Flies

I am going to try to down load a video of me catching a fire fly larvae. I tried to catch a bug but they are so big that it freaked me out a little. We did get a good video of me finding a larvae though. I love to catch bugs and stuff and share them with Charmaine. She makes it so much fun. I tried to catch a feather bug that was just a little too fast for me. You can imagine, it has 100 time more legs then I do.

Aimes inspirers me.

During July Samuel and I were able to go to Aimes and visit Charmaine, Randal and Israel, we had so much fun. Aimes is so beautiful and we had a great time visiting with Charmaine and Family. Some of the things that I enjoyed so much, beside the kids, were how green everything is. Aimes is so densely planted with trees that at night there are no sounds other then an occational sound of nature. Charmaines backyard had a bunny living there and all kinds of birds and bugs. If you know me you know that I love to bird watch and even try to catch an occasional bug. We saw robins and blue jays, fire flies and what Charaime calls a feather bug. (It is really a walking centipede. We were able to get lots of work done, unpacking boxes, organizing and beautifying. An other thing that inspires me from Aimes is the architecture. I love the grand old buildings on campus. They are huge many with Greek revival architecture. Grand staircases, massive columns, bell and clock towers and details that make you want to stare. The houses in Aimes are so cute and grand but my favorite is the little houses that look like my grandma might live there or maybe just a young little family just getting started. I love the shutters and stars that are put on the houses. When I came home I was all ready to paint my house white with black shutters re roof in a gray slate tile and hang a star. Well when I looked at my own house I decided that I do love it just the way it is. I did hang a star and every time I look at it, it reminds me of two things, Charmaine and her family in Aimes and of cource the star that proclaimed the birth of our Savior. How perfectly appropriate for me. I love and miss all of my children that are not here in the Valley and I hope that they know how much I love and miss them all.

We also had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Nauvoo Temple with the kids. Nauvoo is so beautiful and we have been able to visit there 3 time now but this was our first trip to the Temple. WE had such a good and spiritual time.

I really am done

I have actually been done with this room for some time now but I have been so busy and I am not very proficient at blogging and so I have not gotten back to up date. I love the way the room turned out. The Jones Family and the Figgins Family have been able to stay with us and it didn't seem too hazardous. I just put some things away like the llama throw and the glass things. Hugo and Lacy take naps in the room and so far so good. Here is one more pictures of the finished room.