kp duty

When choosing Saturday jobs Lily frequently ends up with KP duty. Just the other day she had to clean up a huge mess when the Raisin Bran box landed upside down on the floor.

answer...

Melted plastic mini blinds. Cooked for about 3 hours in solar oven created with window on one side and foil covered insulation on the other side.


Caution: Do not try this at home. If you like the blinds so much you want your own set please contact me and we'll see if we can work out a deal.

can you guess?

What is it?

silly uncle?

Uncle Keith likes to join Lily in her daily routine...they can frequently be seen looking out the window or sitting on Lily's favorite outdoor perch together. Just the other day, they both ended up on their backs in the middle of the kitchen floor. Keith wanted me to photograph them "for Amy". So here you are....a specially poised picture just for you.

dancing with the big boy's toys

Here are some old tractors that are on display at the little tourist mining town down the road from our house. I thought the tractor lovers in the family would enjoy seeing them.



I was going to try driving this one but couldn't find how to turn it on.


Here's a shot we took in a "for real" mining town east on the way into the mountains. The first time we drove by in December I made a mental note that the next time through we would stop for a photo shoot.

And lastly...for future reference....if you plan to landscape with old farm machinery, note how nice this vehicle looks with the help of some flowering plants.

silly lily the ice cream dog

Come to find out....



veggies are the only thing Lily like to eat...



now that's one contented dog.

why i love arizona #1

LEMONADE!

Monday Jay and I visited a friend who had 3 fruit trees in their back yard. They sent us home with two bags full of big juicy citrus and a lemonade recipe. Pucker Up!

G-O-N-E

Palo Verde tree blooming in Lily's pen.

As the seasons change...

The desert is blooming. The Palo Verde trees have turned the landscape bright yellow. Their intense yellow color and tiny flower reminds me of the Forsythia blooms in Michigan.

Temperatures are rising. It's suppose to reach 100 degrees for the first time today.

And the snowbirds have migrated north to their summer homes. Their exit probably occurred over a couple of weeks time but I noticed the sudden change just last week when I went to the grocery store and got a close parking spot then didn't have to wait in line to get checked out.

dancing at passover

Last night we gathered with about 60 other messianic believers to celebrate with a passover seder meal. It was an absolutely enchanted evening from start to finish.


The church building where the meal was held had been elaborately prepared. The entrance foyer was decorated with draped cloth and arrangements of shofars, candles, tassels and other ornamental objects. The door way into the dining room was veiled with cloth with a blood stained lintel over the door.

My friend, Renalee, and me.

We greeted our friends as we waited for the shofars to blow announcing the start of the meal.

Jay and I...why didn't someone fix my hair!

We wore special in white clothing as part of the celebration.

We sat at beautifully arranged tables of eight and were privileged to be seated with this mother and daughter, Mormon neighbor's of one of our friends. They seemed to enjoy the meal and had lots of questions.


We followed a well written script through the traditional seder including the roasted bone, the horseradish, the charoset, the matzah, and the karpas along with the four cups of juice and the blessings in both Hebrew and English.



When it came time for the telling of the passover story we dipped our fingers in the juice 10 times for each of the judgments and chanted, "blood, blood, blood" and "frogs, frogs, frogs" as each plague was introduced in the story. To make the telling more interesting there were both audio and visual aids. Including frogs croaking, insects buzzing, and people weeping.

Jay collected "locus stickers" and put them on his hat.

The teens circulated the room with each new plague showering the tables with symbols of the plagues. Rice was thrown to remind of us the gnats. There were paper frogs and pipe cleaner flies, round stickers for boils and kosher marshmallows for hail. When the darkness came glow rings were passed out and when the locus arrived there were stickers to stick to our clothing.


After completing the pre-meal portion of the seder we feasted on a delicious meal including the cold asparagus salad....


and chocolate covered strawberries I had prepared.


After the meal and the final portion of the seder script the chairs and tables were pushed back to make room for celebratory dance and worship.

What a wonderful way to be able to remember Yah's goodness to his people throughout the ages.

silly lily lap dog

All things considered Lily really doesn't qualify as a "lap dog" but we've managed our way around those details to establish a snuggle time that involves her sitting on my lap. Typically, I have to initiate this ritual but she has been known to be the one to come to me and want up in my lap. What a sweet baby.

dancing in the arboretum

Grace and I spent a lovely day at Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park about 30 miles south east of our house.


I love the Mexican Poppies that can be found growing wild at this time of year.



Although I don't generally find myself attracted to cacti I do find the totem pole cactus very interesting. It doesn't have the big scary needles found on most cacti so appears to be much more people friendly.


They had a nice butterfly garden that was full of humming birds...look closely and you'll see one with his nose in the flowers.


We found this fun swinging bridge...one that my mother would not have cared for.


I've forgotten the name of this rose bush but it was beautiful...


Do you like my hat?