26 November 2023

Big post, lots of pictures.  On Monday I finished up some hats that Felicity and I collaborated on.  She and I crocheted four hats that I'm going to use as props for this year's Christmas card.  In the afternoon we met with Chantell Nichole Photography to do the kids annual pictures.  I think they turned out beautifully.  Jude was pretty cooperative and I am really happy with them.  It's so hard to believe how big the kids have gotten.  She also took some shots for me to use for those Christmas cards that I mentioned, but I'll show you those photos when I'm done with the cards!

Tuesday was very busy.  Our presidency is responsible for providing lunch for the missionary zone conference a couple of times a year.  This is our third or fourth time doing it, so we have it down to a science, but it is still a lot of work.  We did our Café Rio burritos/salad and soda bar and it was a hit.  It is such a great experience and I'm so happy to help provide a nice lunch for the missionaries in the Tucson mission.  Lucky for me, Phil was actually home this time and so he was able to come and help too.  I don't know how we ended up hosting this big effort the same week as Thanksgiving!

Phil had to work, but I took Wednesday off.  It was nice to clean and get caught up on some things around the house.  Mostly I had to clean up the mess from prepping for the zone conference luncheon.  Helen and Arlo left on Wednesday night as they were going to spend Thanksgiving with their Davidson family.  Felicity went to the movies with friends and saw the new Hunger Games movie.  

Thursday was spent in the kitchen prepping for Thanksgiving.  Since the kids were not going to be home on Thursday we decided to have our Thanksgiving meal on Friday.  I definitely find that if I do a bunch of prep work the day before, cooking the day of goes more smoothly.  Felicity was a great help in the kitchen.  

I was up early on Friday morning and started cooking.  I am not ashamed to say that I have an established time line to get everything out on time and warm.  I had lots of help and really enjoyed making dinner.  Phil went to get the kids from Tucson so they would be home in time to have dinner with us.  I tried my hand at my first fancy charcuterie board.  I love how it turned out!  That made its way out as an appetizer while we waited for guests to arrive and I finished up a few last details.  We had our family of six, my mom and dad, Phil's mom, his uncle and two of his aunts, and Phil's friend Mike for dinner.

We had a lovely time and I think the food turned out beautifully.  We tried a new technique for cooking our turkey this year.  Normally we deep fry our turkey, but we spatchcocked it this time and it was by far one of the most tasty and juicy turkeys I've ever made.  I think we will do that again!  I feel like my pies didn't turn out well this year so I was disappointed about that.  I did try a few new menu items this year.  I added just simple corn, and I added parmesan brussels sprouts, they were a big hit.  Oh, and I made whipped cinnamon butter, like they have at Texas Roadhouse, SO YUMMY!

We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed visiting with everyone.  The kids were happy to establish the kids' table in the kitchen; they can be so anti-social.  

Once everyone left and we got somewhat cleaned up, we packed into the truck and headed up to the White Mountains.  Last year we tried to drive up, find three Christmas Trees, and drive home in one day and it was hard.  This year we decided to drive up and spend the night in a hotel and then spend the whole next day hunting for the perfect tree.  I hated to do it the same night we hosted Thanksgiving, but it was the only weekend at the beginning of the holidays we were all going to be home.

We drove to Show Low and stayed in an inexpensive motel for the night;  I wasn't too worried about the accommodations as it was only for the night.  In the morning we headed out into the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forrest to find our Christmas tree.  There wasn't supposed to be snow, but surprise!  it had snowed a couple days before and there was plenty to stomp through.  We looked at trees most of the morning before deciding on "the tree".  Last year we cut three, one for us and Phil's mom and my parents, but this year we were supposed to only get one.  Phil saw a second one that was just as good, so he cut it too and I had to buy another permit from my phone in the car!

We stopped for lunch at the Bear Wallow Café, a place Phil has been going to since he was a kid.  Our drive home was long and the kids may have been a little cranky.  We took highway 191 along the Coronado Trail out of the mountain which lets out into Morenci so that Phil could show the kids where he grew up.  Let me tell you, I was worried about the mine they're wanting to put in the Santa Ritas (practically in our back yard) before, I'm REALLY worried now.  I can't believe how desolate and awful the mine tailings are where beautiful mountain used to be.  Alas, I'm not ready to give up driving and technology and all the other things that make my life easier that use copper so we'll just have to hope they don't turn the Santa Ritas into Morenci!

Our Sunday was a little rough.  Jude decided to have a temper tantrum during church so I took him out into an empty classroom and we sat and did nothing until he calmed down.  He didn't calm down.  He cried and cried and kicked and screamed.  I'm sure he had long forgotten why he was even mad in the first place.  He didn't stop until he fell asleep mid-tantrum.  He is a tenacious kid, lets all pray he can use it for good some day!

A nice happenstance occurred before I had to take Jude out Sacrament Meeting.  My lovely friend Olivia was talking about how Costco wasn't carrying real Christmas trees this year and they weren't sure where they were going to get one.  Bingo!  We cut that extra tree, so we took that over to their house after church.  

I had a rehearsal with the brass quartet Sunday after church and was missing one of my trumpets so my wonderful husband was more than happy to jump in as a temporary replacement.  We have gone over all the music, the first two thirds several times, so we're going to meet again on Tuesday to clean it up a bit and fine tune a couple of areas and we *should* be ready to perform next Saturday.

In the evening we put on Christmas music and decorated the tree and house.  A fun, but stressful event for me, family favorite.  Every year there are more Christmas totes than the year before...I just can't help those after Christmas sales!  So there was more decorating than we could do in one night, but we did get all three Christmas trees up (yeah, three, I know); one in our living room, the real one in the family room, and a new one in our bedroom.  I kinda love it in the bedroom!  We are kicking off the holidays early at Two Jack Ranch and I'm glad we are.    

19 November 2023

 Phil was working on Monday so Jude and I held down the ranch.  In the afternoon we picked up Arlo from school and ran an errand in Sahuarita.  On our way home we noticed plumes of black smoke coming from our neighborhood.  A Pima County Sheriff beat us there, but we were well down our dirt road before Rural Metro got there.  One my neighbor's house was on fire.  Luckily nobody was hurt although this poor family is going to be displaced for awhile.

In the evening Felicity had her first symphonic concert.  It was very good.  Felicity switched between flute and piccolo, sometimes within the same song.  

Phil was home on Tuesday and in the evening I went to dinner with a couple of girlfriends to catch up which was nice.  We tried Rudy's BBQ on Ajo and it was pretty good.  The kids had a half day Wednesday and the girls decided to stay home.  I put them to work cleaning since they didn't go to school.  In the evening I got to go out to dinner for my birthday with our stake Relief Society Presidency.  We had a lovely time and I'm so grateful for my association with these amazing women.

On Friday we butchered turkeys for Thanksgiving.  We lost most of our chicks this year and so we only had one turkey to sell and one to eat.  I had a hair appointment, so I felt bad for leaving the butchering all on Phil, but he had it well in hand.  The family we sold to came by, picked out their turkey and they had it butchered and cleaned well before I got home from my salon appointment.

Helen and Arlo went to visit their dad after school on Friday and in the evening the Priests Quorum (boys ages 16-18 youth group ) came over with their leaders and they had a bon fire activity on the back of our property.  It was a little bit of an activity for them and a little bit service project for us as Phil used the tractor to push a bunch of brush and yard debris into a pile for them to burn.  They got to keep cutting and dragging things from the yard to feed the fire.  They had quite the fire going out there.  Felicity and I watched a movie, Phil spent most of the evening outside.  Why wouldn't he?  There was fire, chain saws, dirt bikes, and food outside.

Phil worked on Saturday and Jude and I went to visit him in the afternoon after we finished our chores and shopping.  Jude loves to visit Daddy at work and got to climb up in the big truck. What little boy wouldn't love that?  Felicity practiced with the Stake choir on Sunday and then got to attend temple and mission prep in the evening.  I had a band practice with my brass quintet.  We were able to get through another 1/3 of the music I have planned and its coming together nicely.  We definitely need a few more practices before we're ready to play it on December 2nd.

12 November 2023

We had an exciting Monday.  After hunting all day, Arlo got his very first mule deer just before the sun went down.  He was just a little spike, but Arlo was over the moon happy.  The girls had band practice so they didn't get home until after seven.  Once they got home I took Felicity to Benson and met Phil and Arlo and we swapped kids so that Felicity could hunt with Dad and Arlo could come home with me.  Felicity was pretty motivated because I got a text first thing in the morning that she had gotten her deer down too.  She wasn't going to be picky because she didn't want to miss more than a day of school, so she got a little fork.  I was able to take time off in the afternoon and I drove out and swapped Felicity, she drove my car home and I stayed with Phil so I could hunt.  We went out all afternoon until the sun went down and didn't see anything.

Wednesday morning Phil and I were up early and hunted all day.  I had an opportunity about mid day at a three point buck, but he was high up on the hill and I couldn't get prone/stable so I missed and he went over the top.  We got up on the ridge and hiked along the ridge where he went over, but never did see him again.  I was pretty disappointed with myself.  Oh well.  We hunted until the sun went down and didn't see anything else.  We packed up and headed home.  As we were driving along highway 83 on our way home I told Phil that I wouldn't be sad if a big mule deer buck sprung out of the desert and ran in front of the truck, and then one did.  Literally.  A big mule deer buck.  It was the craziest thing!  Unfortunately he got to the other side of the road safely.  We got two out of three tags filled so I shouldn't be too upset.

Thursday was my 43rd birthday.  Wow, I'm getting old.  I worked all day and Phil spent most of the day processing Arlo and Felicity's deer.  We ended up with a lot of ground meat.  We went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday and had some cheesecake for dessert.  The older I get the less meaningful birthdays are.

The kids were out of school on Friday which was nice because they were able to help me with Jude.  Phil worked in the morning at the public safety training building doing live fire and then he went to work for an overtime shift at the fire station 8PM-8AM.  He stayed at work on Saturday for his regular shift.

The girls had their state marching band finals on Saturday morning and I was sad that I wasn't going to make it, but I wished them luck.  Felicity messaged me after a very long day to say that they came in 2nd in the state in their division.  

They were a little disappointed they didn't take first, but runner up was an incredible accomplishment considering it was all 1A/2A schools in Arizona.  What a great way to end the season, and Felicity's last year of high school marching band.

Arlo and Jude and I were home together all evening.  I was in my room folding the mountains and mountains of laundry generated during the week while the boys were watching a movie in the family room.  Arlo came in to talk to me when I smelled a chemical burning smell.  I asked Arlo if he was cooking and he told me that he made mac and cheese a while ago.  I came out of my room to find a family room full of smoke.  Arlo had forgotten to turn the burner off AND had left a container of cereal on the stove.  The heat from the burner melted a hole in the cereal container and as the cereal spilled out it burned on the stove.  Ahh!  He helped me clean it up and air out the house and we had a serious discussion about making sure we turn the burners off.  ADHD and cooking can be a dangerous combination.

I was visiting in the Valencia ward on Sunday and then in the afternoon I led band practice.  Our congregation participates in an annual Christmas activity for Corona Cares which is a home-grown neighbors-helping-neighbors program that serves the elderly in our community.  The person organizing the event at our church this year asked that I put together a brass ensemble to perform at the brunch in December.  I decided to form a youth only brass quintet and we met together Sunday afternoon to practice.  It was a little rough at the onset, but we ran through 30% of our music before we were done and had that much cleaned up.

In the evening we went to my parents' house to have dinner which was nice.  Nana got Jude a couple of new games.  This Freddy Fish butterfly blowing game was his favorite.

05 November 2023

Jude had his music class on Monday, he and Daddy really enjoy that.  Since I went back to work full time in the spring I don't have Mondays off anymore, so Jude only gets to go when Phil is off from work, but they love when they can attend.  Chief had a follow up visit at the vet for his second rabies vaccine.  He was more well behaved this time around.  I have to remind myself that our dogs don't ever leave our property so going into town and seeing a lot of other people, other dogs, being inside, etc. is probably pretty jarring.   The girls stayed after school for band practice.  With the football season wrapped up they are completely focused on one more competition and state finals.

Jude gave me a real treat for Halloween.  At some point during the morning on Tuesday Jude let himself out the back door while I was in a work meeting.  I heard a terrible commotion and looked out back to see chickens everywhere.  Jude had opened every single coop letting dozens of birds out.  His goal, was to of course, grab eggs and then throw them.  The worse part of the ordeal was while one of my dogs was properly herding the chickens back into the coop the other ding-dong was chasing and chewing on chickens.  He knows better, but did it anyway.  By the time I got all the chickens back into their coops and surveyed the damage I had three dozen eggs broken in the yard, four dead chickens, one frazzled dog, one in-trouble dog, and a bunch of stressed out birds; we'll be lucky to get any eggs for the rest of the month.  I love Jude.  He is a handful!

Phil was able to take the back half of his shift off (6PM-8AM) on Halloween so he could take Jude trick-or-treating.  Everyone got all dressed up and we took pictures.  Jude and Dad went as firemen, Arlo went as a hunter, Helen was an octopus, and Felicity was a scarecrow.  We drove over to Nana's neighborhood and set out with our candy bags.  It was windy and kind of chilly.  Jude caught on pretty quickly and I was surprised how long he lasted before he started to lose it and whine.  He got a lot of candy.  Everybody loved his firetruck, we even had a couple of people stop us to take a picture.  

The girls had a night with no activities on Wednesday so Helen and Felicity went to the movies.  Phil and Arlo got ready to leave on a mule deer hunt.  Arlo, Felicity, and I all have tags in the Wilcox area, but we're going to have to go in shifts because of our schedules and the need for someone to be home with Jude.  Arlo gets to go first.  He hunted all day on Friday and then had to pause to go visit his dad.

  The kids had picture day this week.  I guess they take the senior year book pictures at the school when they do the rest of the photographs.  Felicity wanted to wear the dress I wore in my senior pictures (I don't know why I even still have it) they turned out pretty cute.

Helen and Arlo's are cute too...although Helen wasn't happy with hers.  She forgot it was picture day and so was a little disheveled with her hair undone and wearing Dad's tee shirt.  I will say her picture gave everyone in our house a laugh between her weird stoic stare and her "Bear Attack Tip" tee.

I don't want to jinx my success, but I thought I would provide a little update on my health improvements.  I've lost 45 pounds and no longer have reflux and sleep apnea, so I'm excited to keep the momentum going!

The girls had their last regular season marching band competition on Saturday and again walked away with first place for their division.  Our Sunday was nice and quiet, Dad and Jude even caught a nap together.  Sunday evening we picked up Helen and Arlo from Tucson and then Arlo and Dad drove back out to Wilcox.  Phil left the fifth wheel at their camping spot so they didn't have to set anything up, just drive in and climb into bed.  Fingers crossed that he is able to get his deer.

29 October 2023

The marching band season, well, marches on.  The girls are really enjoying it, although it is a lot of work.  They have practice on Monday evenings and don't get home until late and then of course they need to get caught up on homework.  I worked on Monday and after I was done I started construction of Jude's firetruck.  He's going to be a firemen for Halloween this year and I wanted to make a firetruck out of a wagon so that we would have a way to pull him around Halloween night when he gets tired.  We bought a sheet of MDF and I drew it out and my sweet husband cut the pieces and screwed them together.  

I also made Jude's costume this week.  It was SO easy.  I designed some vinyl for a custom shirt and sewed reflective tap to a pair of khaki pants.  Slap on some suspenders and rubber boots and voila you have a fireman.  I also made a sticker for the plastic firemen's hat Dad brought home from work.  Everything is branded Two Jack Ranch Fire Department.  I love it.  While I had the Cricut fired up, I also made decals for the truck along with some gages.

Tuesday happened to be the anniversary of Phil and my first date four years ago.  Boy am I a lucky girl he wanted to take me out!  

During my lunch break I painted Jude's firetruck and added headlights, tail lights, and emergency lights on the top.  The lights really were the icing on the cake!  I was able to get little battery operated puck lights for the front and back and battery operated siren lights for the top on Amazon.  It rained most of the day which was a bummer because it meant that they had to move the church Fall Festival inside.  I couldn't debut the fire engine because I knew it was going to be packed inside the church and there wouldn't be room to maneuver it around; it was crowded!  My mom and Jaidyn also came by for some modified indoor trunk or treating.  

Wednesday the kids had a half day and in the evening Felicity had her appointment with the Stake Patriarch to receive her Patriarchal Blessing.  Phil and Felicity and I drove to the Patriarch's home and visited with him and his wife for quite awhile before he gave her blessing.  It was beautiful and filled with so many wonderful things...it was quite long too!  We all felt the Spirit strongly and when we were done Felicity was very happy she had followed through and received it.  The blessing was recorded and they will transcribe it into a written document and file a copy with the church and send a copy to Felicity to keep.  When we were done we took Felicity out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate.  We had a great time.  I am so proud of the young woman Felicity has become.

Thursday our hot water heater went out, oh, joy.  I also had a stake leadership organizational training.  I got to help host the Elder's Quorum second counselors and Relief Society second counselors session and I think it went fairly well.  The girls' had an orthodontist appointment Friday morning and everything seems to be going well.  I think Felicity is a little frustrated.  We put her braces back on because after her retainer broke her teeth shifted.  Her braces are basically on a month to month plan until they are straight again and its taking a little longer than she anticipated.

Friday evening was senior night at the football game.  Phil and I got there before kick off and watched the band march into the stadium.  Felicity and the other seniors were all decked out in candy leis one of the moms had made.  You could tell they were a little emotional being at their last game.  

During half time we made our way out to the field and they announced all the band seniors.  I may have gotten a little teary, this having a senior thing is a little hard.  Especially because I'm sure Felicity just started kindergarten not that long ago.  

The band boosters had these really cool heavy canvas posters made for the seniors that were lining the fence around the field.  

Saturday we did chores and cleaned and all the stuff that doesn't get done during the week.  I may have caught Jude napping naked on the floor in the kitchen.  These days, that's the only way I can get a nap out of him, if he happens to lay still long enough to fall asleep.  

We had the missionaries over for dinner in the evening.

Phil picked up an overtime shift on Sunday since he didn't get one earlier in the week.  We had church and I had a training in the Colossal Cave ward to participate in.  In the evening we had our family home evening and carved our Halloween pumpkins.  It is a favorite tradition.  We had caramel apples and apple cider and listened to Halloween music while carving our pumpkins.  Jude fell asleep before we were done so he didn't make it into the picture.  Felicity carved zombie Michael Jackson from "Thriller", Arlo carved ghost face, Helen carved Ichabod Crane, and I carved the Jenna Ortega Wednesday Addams.  Over the years the kids have gotten so good at it and I didn't have to help anyone this year.  Aren't they cool?!

22 October 2023

Busy, busy week here at Two Jack Ranch.  Phil was gone a lot this week too which probably made it feel more busy.  He worked overtime on Monday, his regular shift on Tuesday, and then overtime on Wednesday and Thursday before going back to his regular shift on Sunday.  

The young women took a trip to the temple on Tuesday.  Arlo enjoyed his own young men's activity in the evening.  I had a Relief Society meeting on Wednesday night.  Thursday was a little nutty.  Phil worked a few hours of overtime at a live fire demonstration.  Basically new fire academy grads practice with real fires and they need folks there to make sure nothing goes sideways.  I was working of course and at some point during the day Jude took two or three eggs from the counter behind the couch (the place where he does his naughty things) and broke them and rubbed them into the carpet.  He's obsessed with eggs lately so it wasn't a surprise, but man was I mad!  That smell is the worse!  I cleaned it up and when Phil got home I told him what happened and that we were going to need a new carpet cleaner.  I knew that because I used our upright carpet cleaner on that egg mess there would be no amount of cleaning that would get that smell out of the cleaner.  I should have taken it straight out to the dumpster, but I didn't.  My very helpful, very well meaning husband, who works hard and doesn't like me throwing money away, rinsed it off and then proceeded to use it in various spots all over the house, thus spreading the egg smell throughout our home.  Ahhh!  My house reeked of rotten egg...the whole house.  Now I wanted to kill them both.  Perhaps needless to say, but the upright carpet cleaner got thrown away in the dumpster never to torment us again.  In the midst of all the egg and carpet chaos I totally forgot to take Arlo to a doctor's appointment in the afternoon so I also wasted $60 for a missed appointment.  Its been a week.

Zerorez came out to the house on Friday and cleaned the carpet in the whole house for me.  I felt better about the carpet situation after that, although it wasn't easy on the bank account!  In the evening we went to the football game and had a great time.  The kids' marching band show is coming along nicely and we enjoyed the game.

The girls were gone early Saturday morning for University of Arizona Band Day which in my humble opinion is the only marching band competition that counts.  Phil and Jude and I drove down to Arizona stadium mid-morning to watch Cienega perform.  They did a great job, my only disappointment was that they didn't have their complete show to put on the field with all their visual effects yet.  

I felt like the marching was solid and the musical performance was good, although I wish the pieces selected were a little more exciting, but that may be because the last band I marched with was the "world's first alternative marching band".  

They took first in their division which was SO exciting.  They have made so many improvements on the field.  They went from sixth place last year to first.  We got to see the Pride of Arizona perform as well, which is always a treat.  

Obviously its been almost 20 years since I performed with the Pride, but its still my band.  We took the girls out to lunch after the mid-day awards ceremony. 

 Helen turned around and got dolled up and went to homecoming in the evening with some friends.  

Phil was back at work on Sunday, but we had a nice Sabbath anyway.  Here's my little monster looking all dapper and cute, ready for church.