Shout out!

Today is the birthday of Doris Jewel Redington Jones!

Opposition in All Things I Guess

There is a beautifully simple chapel built high above Sedona. It seems to almost grow out of the rocks and mountains themselves. Candles are lit and prayers ascend, people ponder and meditate there, and the views are beautiful, except for one thing--Someone is building a horrendous mansion right across the way!
It is gaudy and ostentatious in the extreme. The contrast is like day and night, good and evil, and it is blatantly worldly like a "great and spacious building". It is not quite completed, and no one lives in it yet, but the architect has a sign up procaiming his ownership in the creation of this folly, this blight on the landscape, but, it is also sure that someone will soon move in, oblivious to the insult.
This is beyond one of those "McMansions" I dislike so much. I was appalled at its "grotesque audacity". (Okay, now I am stretching.)
I know I am ranting, but I couldn't help myself this time and it is my blog, perhaps I will start using this forum more often. I do love to climb on the old soap box once in a while.

If we become aware of this frightening trend, we can battle it in our own way. I don't know what that way may be but I hope we find it. I know awareness is the first step toward change.

Here is a photo in one direction from the courtyard entryway of the Christian chapel. ( I think it was Catholic) I did not take a picture the other way. I could not bring myself to do so. Maybe I should have. No, I don't think so, that might have given it some sort of perverse recognition "it" somehow craves.

Agenda for the Past week

• Serious game of Sardines!(friends too, whole house, in the dark)
• Early am Golf 18
• Joe's Real BBQ -Food-pulled pork and baked beans with lemon icebox cake
• Phoenix Art Museum
• Shopping
• Tennis-two hours of doubles against the young couple o' Kellys
• Pei Wei Chinese -Food-Honey seared chicken
• Lifting weights and jogging at the clubhouse
• Gecko Grill-food- fabulous bean dip and Shrimp/Mango quesidillas
• Rent and watch Movies-The Music Man-(yup, we imagined Isaac instead of R. Preston)
• Drive to Rocky Point, Mexico and explore the famous tidepools
• Wally Ball at the club house.
• Grill Brats and Burgers by the pool and play water volley ball. (Ashley, I used "The Pioneer Woman"for a texas sheet cake recipe and it was great.)
• Take the boat out and wakeboard.
• Lunch at (Danny's) Otto's (best pizza ever) in down town Tempe.
• Scenic drive through Payson and Pine
• visit the Biosphere
• Cliff jump and chute slide in the cold water of Slide rock Park
• tour Tallisin West-(Frank Lloyd wright's place)
• lunch on excellent Mexican food in the totally cool Talaquepaque area(who knows how that's spelled?)
• Mesa Temple
• Go to church
• Visit a Vortex(center of earth energy, a Hippy/crystal thing Sedona is full of 'em)and lots of other cool stuff, in Sedona
• Visit Paul and Cathy Davidson-dear old friends from Colorado
• Play Rock Band and Guitar hero
• Open Danny's Mission call!!! and celebrate.

Okay so there are 3 or 4 things on the list that we ended up not doing, (Rocky point,boating) but we wanted too! Anyway, you get the idea.

Like I said,"Ain't We Got Fun!"

At Slide Rock State Park

This is in the canyon south of Flagstaff on 89 just before Sedona. It is a beautiful part of the state.
Our friends, the Handy's, have a cabin there. (Yup, it is a "Handy cabin".) We're going again for Labor day weekend.Rachel and Lara judging the jumping
from a safe spot down below. "I give it a 9.5"
Allison and Ian in mid fall, jumping from the highest spot there. The one in the leaves in the upper right hand corner of the photograph,not the spot where all the people are gatheredin the background. (I need to make sure they receive the appropriate amount of awe for the feat.)
I wore a big hole in my shorts sliding down some of the many chutes. I did have a swim suit on underneath them.
The water was cold enough to take your breathe away. A refreshing change from Phoenix that is for sure.David Cannonballing into a lesser pool at the end of one of the chutes.
Spencer jumping "the big one" (we think it is about 50 feet) one of his many plunges.

Danny got his Mission Call!

Chile,

Viña del Mar !

Ain't We Got Fun!

Every morning, every evening, ain't we got fun!
That is from a very old song- even before my time. I don't know how I know it, but I do.

Ian and Allison Kelly are here visiting from New York city. We swim and eat and play, alot.

We are anxiously awaiting Daniel's Mission call!

My Desert

Giant Saguaro
Ocotillo

Cholla -Staghorn

(Teddybear) Cholla

cute little prickly thing!

mammillaria Hedgehog?

Barrel Cactus

Yup, this is just higher in elevation than where I live in Gilbert.

Jiggetty Jig.

(I have never tried to spell that before.)
In case you don't know, that is the phrase that comes right after,
"Home again, Home again,".

Mind reading is unhealthy.

Just an additional thought on not" mind reading". ( believing some one doesn't mean what they say and try to figure out what they '"really mean"). It is way too much pressure and is a tell-tale sign of unhealthy thought processes.

If you know someone is "lying" to you about how they feel or what they want or what they can do, and you feel the need to "read their mind" and try to discern what they are really feeling inside, you can still do that if they are fragile perhaps, but tell them and call them on it. Do this enough times and it may start to sink in.

We need to be able to believe and trust what people say.

If mind reading is unhealthy and it is, so is being dishonest about your wants and needs and expecting others to believe you. People can be pretty perceptive.

We are to be an honest people.

One of the initial thoughts on Mind Reading is...

Don't do it! We have to go with what people say to us, to believe their words. That is how it needs to work, and vise versa of course.

More on "Blooming Where You are Planted"

Doctrine and Covenants 51:16,17

And I consecrate unto them this land for a little season, until I , the Lord, shall provide for them other wise, and command them to go hence;

And the hour and the day is not given them, wherefor let them act upon this land as for years, and this shall turn unto them for their good.