Thursday, April 30, 2009

Before I quit

There is a little period of time when I feel maybe I could garden here in the DESERT, and thanks to my dear friend Marsha Jackson, (of skinny ankle fame)I have wonderful Hollyhocks this year! She gave me the seeds some time ago and they have not just survived-- they have thrived!









I have tried a little square foot gardening this year. So I decided to post pictures of it as well as the HHs mostly cause I know Alli was asking about it.
...
I might get a zucchini.

Not too much luck with the composting bin though.

But Hope springs eternal.
...
Of course July is fast approaching and I am sure I will will once more throw down my tools in disgust and run screaming-- to jump in the pool/into the wilderness, and give up gardening for good one more time.

(Wanna borrow a jack?)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Walley Ball....













Here's just some of the fun you can have at our free to residents clubhouse-walley ball, racketball tennis, beach pool, heated year round swim pool, hot tub/jacussi, boating, kayacking, fishing, reception rooms with kitchen and dance floor, work out room, weight training room, various classes, communitee activities such as chili cookoff, dances, christmas mountain /food drive,and clubs, bikeing and running trails. There are parks with soccer fields baseball diamond, basketball courts and cool playgrounds-- great places for kids,all within this lakes area.

ummm.. this is a shameless plug for this area.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Prom flowers

Well I made up three corsages for Highland's Prom today.
Here is one of them.
I don't know- it is just what I have been doing the last couple of days. Sometimes it feeds my soul.




I carved out a little space in the garage amidst the water storage and dolls and junk, for when I work on silk flowers. Of course that only works in the winter.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Kaliedescope

My Sister in Peru-One Story

( I can't figure out where the pictures went for now, sorry)

After the earthquake--

Ysabel Cuya is a mother of 5, whose husband was put in jail 4 years ago. She is very active, has an autistic child and lost her job at the hospital when the earthquake took it down. She lives in a tent. Three of the children have been put in a state school for their education and protection. She is living off of her food storage. She has title to her land and so she is on the list to have a new house. She is becoming a bricklayer in our education program so she can help build her home. They are both our missionaries from 20 years ago.

We spent a few more days in the earthquake zone. The first house is one that is waiting for the roof to dry. The second is the house they are making for my missionary, Ysabel. She has 5 kids, 3 are in a youth house in Ica going to school because she doesn't have a house. She has been living in a tent for over a year.

They have started her house. She left her 12 year old daughter and her autistic 14 year old son, who doesn't speak, to come to the church and sign her loan papers so she could take electrician, bricklaying and plumbing classes. While she was gone, people stole 3 of her bricks. She will have them all stored in her tent by morning.


In Pisco, many people are still living in tents even a year after the earthquake. Grim.


The Church donates tons of goods down here. Today we were asked to represent the Church at a Prison in Callao for a large Church Donation. We went and as we were going into the prison we saw one of our missionaries that we had not seen, David Piscoya, he is a doctor and was inside the prison helping. After we took the picture we had to turn in our camera. Then we sat on the stand with the Senator of Callao and he said a lot of nice things about us and the Church in a televised ceremony. There were other things involved, but we had donated over 30 wheel chairs and 1,100 blankets and 1,500 hygiene kits. It was crazy. I am watching the TV now to see how much of us are on there.

When the earthquake hit Pisco, several hundred people were trapped in this church and werekilled. Now they are bringing it down. Notice the mound that they had to build up to getmachine in there to tear it down. That is an interesting solution to the problem.

We are virtually starting from zero here. We are working on a lot of loans to teach people to work in construction and build their own houses. The Laytons, Greadings and Allands and others are building like crazy down here. (private builders from the States-good volunteers)


Ysabel Cuya now has the shell of a house. She wanted us to come down and dedicate it for her so we did. We had a nice little prayer and that was it. Her autistic son was cooking rice over an open fire when we got there. They don't have electricity yet but they are working on it. They have been living in a tent for over a year. They actually still are but are slowly getting things together for the house. She plans on selling things out the front of the house to students in the two schools that pass by her door and are very close. She does have a job right now.

With everyone gone, it really became a thing of just doing it myself. I do not know the final countbut I processed, approved and communicated with in excess of 210 loans during the last coupleofweeks. We did 184 loans all of last year. We are up to 500+ new loans plus we process the ongoing renewals which would be a whole lot more. We are both very busy.

Douglas Earl


(vjc)

Link

I have been talking to a few of my friends about my extended family's experiences in Peru. for those of you who wanted to know more about this "Never a failure" missionary story here is a link to my Sister and Brother-in-law's blog "And It Came To Pass".

http://dougearlfamily.blogspot.com/2009/04/41-years-later.html

Monday, April 20, 2009

a letter

Keith attended the TEA party here.

(On April 15th, hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered in more than 800 cities to voice their opposition to out of control spending at all levels of government. Organized in all 50 states by Americans from all walks of life, these "tea parties" were a true grassroots protest of irresponsible fiscal policies and intrusive government. TaxDayTeaParty.com was the home of these protests, and will continue to be an online gathering place for a new generation of grassroots activists who are committed to effecting positive change in their communities. )

It was well attended.
Mom got a letter saying the Obama bailout would send her 250 dollars.

Jason was correct in guessing that Elder Dan had been transferred to La Serena. he says it is beautiful.

My Colorado home was snowed in by over 2 feet of snow for over 2 days! Everything closed down including schools and freeways.
Sigh.
It is supposed to hit 100 degrees this week here.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Monotonous Continuation

Today I sat around by the pool and ate Easter candy.

Mom and I worked on learning the letters "G" and "H" in ASL.

Tried to change my blog.


Continued boredom here.

The rest of the family went dirt bike riding out to Indian Wells. Rae is meeting them there after she gets off work. Keith and David both had a half day.
I told them three strikes and you are out. Meaning no injuries this time or ...something will not happen until ...something happens. I will have to get Keith on board (not easy with motorized vehicles) or my threats would be useless.
My friends are all busy with their family's and I have no money to take myself shopping, any ideas on what to do? and don't say laundry! (also don't say genealogy).

Thursday, April 16, 2009

My life is very boring right now.
that explains the posts lately I guess.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Pearls Before Swine

"No eat bees, Dey sting you face." Larry Gator

Happy Easter



Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other,
when we don’t judge or categorize someone else,
when we simply give each
other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet.
Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.



Marvin J. Ashton, June 2004 Ensign, V.T. Message

Monday, April 13, 2009

The prodigal daughter returns

Maintaining my own blog was just ridiculous. Who was I kidding? You would think that a single, living at home, no responsiblities type of girl would have nothing better to do than blog!! Ha, yeah right. But count it as a lesson learned. So I am posting on the good ol' Cutler blog again. Not that it will be terribly frequent, but I think I will give it a better go. Went to Conference last weekend, it was glorious. My first live one. Can the church get truer? No pictures though. Sorry. I have become a little camera unhappy. Hmm. Don't like that, maybe I should get snappin. Make some summer plans, take some trips, have something to look forward to.

The last time I uploaded photos was January so here is a little from the holidays in Utah and then a rock climbing trip in Vegas where I stayed with Sam and Kyle but took no photographs with them...sweet.




Saturday, April 11, 2009

Car Guys Wife

Yes, that title refers to me, also a computer guys wife and so forth.
Because I am married to this guru I can depend upon him for said strengths. An unfortunate consequense can be that my skill in those areas sometimes diminishes from lack of use. So from the "name that car game" played on our Honeymoon 'till now, 29 years and some 126 vehicles later, my car skills have ebbed and flowed. Thus, to make a long story longer, I made a mistake in calling Allison's Cavalier a Ford. Oh Horror. (see post and comments"I trust you I just don't trust the other guy")

Of course I know it is a Chevrolet.

I just was seeing if you were awake.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Gram

I have always thought my Gram,
Florence Eames Jones,
wore the perfume "Emeraude" but now, with a little more experience, I think, perhaps, it was "Shalimar". I used to sometimes sit in her closet and just breath in the scent of her.
She usually kept the sheer curtains closed and the old orangey blind pulled in her bedroom so it was a dimly lit space with a kind of "firelight glow". The closet was set back in an archway with textured drapes over the entry to it. I think part of those drapes later hung over my closet door in Almo for years. They probably still do (kind of orange, cream, and black woven threads)
She also had a blue musical Powder box in there that I loved to play. I have found a similar one that I love now because of these memories.
She lived in a pink one bedroom apartment in Burley Idaho. Mr Manning, the landlord, lived next door. We used to think he had a crush on her.
There was a spring loaded door over the laundry shoot to the basement. I bet I don't have to explain its draw to any red-blooded Grandkid.

The bathroom sink had a plug on a chain with the hot and cold coming out of two separate faucets and "singing" pipes. I thought Grams' pipes would sing because she always did.

There was a red and white vinyl and chrome dinette set and a cookie jar that was always full in that sunny kitchen. It was wonderful. I got my first haircut sitting in there. Gram and my mom cut off my pony tail.

Gram always wore nylon stockings with a dress, jewelry, and heels.
She was always cleaning and when she did she wore an apron and would sing and hum.
She was a small woman. I think under 5 ft tall? -round and soft too. One of her brothers, Crandle, was a successful jockey.


There was a beautiful weeping willow in the lot next door and a huge Bleeding Heart bush outside her back door with spring bulbs and roses.
My Gram taught me how Snapdragons snapped and tree seeds whirled and spun when you threw them in the air.

It was there I learned to slide down a stair railing and hula hoop,and play a peg solitaire game. My cousin Sherma and I would sit at Gram's Piano and Sherma would show me all the songs she had learned at lessons. Hence it was also there I learned to play "Chopsticks" and "Heart and Soul" and to sing "Under the Willows."

Gram raised 8 kids and was widowed when the youngest was 3. The twins were 5 at the time(my dad and his brother). Grandpa Jesse died of a ruptured appendix, after coming home on horse back one noon from his mothers house where he had been helping with the cattle. June, her second daughter, was killed in a car crash coming home from a Naf dance not long after Jess' death in SLC. As far as I know, none of her children nor grandchildren(me for one anyway) were ever allowed to go to a Naf dance after that.

I have always said that Gram is where Rachel gets her height, and maybe a lot more too.

random

It was just a trip to the dentist!
I sat in the waiting room for Davey to get his tooth filled so we could go shopping for new dress pants. It is an old tradition that whenever we take em out of school for dentist or shots we get a one on one time lunch or treats. any way we noticed the policeman had pulled someone over about the same time as did the speeding traffic in front of me. The driver in front of me stood on it( I guess he was speeding or scared he was) I stopped but the young girl behind me did not. i could hear the brakes squealing and see the smoke billowing and stinking from brakes behind her as i watched in my rearview mirror as her car slammed into us!
Dave said," did we just get hit?" (duh.) "SWEET!" He was stoked the whole time by the experience.
We did not find any dress pants.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

I trust you, I just don't trust the other guy!

So Allison is driving down a street in the Bronx and a guy in another car tries to make a left turn right through her!


She is okay, probably thanks in no small part to her seatbelt being firmly strapped around her, But their trusty Ford Cavalier will probably have to be totalled.

Monday, April 6, 2009

A history making day for Justin and Angelique.
Congratulations on their First Baby!

Douglas Justin Earl

see blog "and it came to pass" for photos!

Max

Danny's old friend from Colorado, Max Bastian is serving in the same Mission in Chile than Dan is. he is about3 months ahead of Dan. It is so fun for me to see these two little boys now on their mission together. Max is front and center in black,and then backrow 2nd from left in grey. Dan is far right above and middle middle in purple, below.


I just saw Max's parents Rock and Melanie, at spring training,
the only picture i have of Rock is when he is on the phone. I guess he is kind of like Keith that way. Have you ever noticed how many group shots we have where Keith is on the phone?


By the way, Daniel was transfered to way northern misson today.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

What I think about...

"The sense of being overwhelmed is very much a part of the journey."
Joseph McConkie

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Happy Birthday Danny!!

Today is the day!

Happy Birthday Daniel!



(see prior posts please)
march 29th or clic on "almost a fool"( a label at the very bottom of this blog site)

Cactus League

Can anyone figure out what this is a photo of?

hint- it was my view during the game.

answer- Dave Watt's back




Okay, down to business. Wait, one more trick photo.
This photo?
Any guesses?
Five little dots in the distance above the giant green batters eye wall? (by the way when you are seated behind that thing, on the side, you can tell you have really bad seats).
Yup, it's a "fly by" of red Bi wing airplanes! Even at their slow speed I couldn't get a photo until they had almost disappeared. ( I have never claimed to be good at this. )



Rachel and Russ showed up too! Rachel started a water fight with me and I definitely "finished it".

But, the whole reason for this party is that our good old friends the Watts came to Cactus League spring training.
Cactus league for those of you who don't know(not Joey of course)is Major league Baseball "warm up "games. Oh I don't know- Ask Joe E. He may not know it but he is my "go to" guy" on Arizona sports.


Anyway, we went to see the COLORADO ROCKIES play the Chicago Cubs! We got some serious sun, ate dogs and cheese frys (10 points for finding them in the picture)and "drank" frozen lemonade. (I won't mention that the Rockies lost.)


Photo-from left to right-Nada,Josh,Jaxon(look closely he's only three months old, I am serving a purpose as I sit in my largeness, I am his shade maker!)Me, Ashley, Kaitlin, Rachel, Russ, then Davey, and Christine! (We have been friends since before these two were even born.)

Hooray for Colorado!