Kachina dolls

I found it! The names of the carvings I spoke of below are Kachinas. I posted a little note describing them below. The title should be a link to more information on the gallery we visited. If it's not, 'someone' needs to call me and give a link/title posting lesson. Love you Ben.

Kachina carving is a uniquely Hopi art. Though commonly called "dolls" they are in fact stylized religious icons, meticulously hand-carved from whole cottonwood roots by a small number of Hopi artists who have won the cultural honor of making them.

Cowboy & Indian art collection

Last weekend, Mark and I met with the other 17 Mission Presidents and their wives in our area (south west US) for our annual seminar. (It happened to be in Scottsdale, so we didn't have to go far this year!) Presiding and in attendance were Elder Hales & his wife and Elder Anderson & his wife. I'm still working through my notes and trying to decide what to talk about on the blog, but until then, I thought I would post these pictures. Elder Hales spoke to us about a love for the Lamanite people and their descendants, and told us about the private art collection we were about to view. Basha grocery stores is a large chain here in Arizona. Three generations ago, the founder began collecting from and supporting local artists of an art genre not then acknowledged by critics and the art community. It is an impressive collection with thousands of paintings, bronzes, wooden sculptures, pottery, jewelry.... Below are some of my favorite pieces. I loved these two paintings especially. The bottom one is titled Winter's light. Some of this artists' paintings are very impressionistic in design and palette-not the typical of what you would expect from 'indian art'.



Mom, I thought you would especially love the wooden carvings of the indian gods. They reminded me of your Japanese figurines in delicacy and intricacy. They are very fragile. You'd also love the basket collection from the various indian tribes. Maybe if you come up again, we can arrange for you to go up. There were dozens of these.

Friends

Liz loves to do hair...she got to do my hair all week at EFY when I forgot one of my bags at home. She did my hair before we went to Mesa to take our friend from EFY, Robert, out for his birthday dinner.

After taking forever to decided, we went to Red Robin.
We went to go jump on the trampoline in Brandon's backyard...and Liz wanted to take a picture like this...we were having a blast if you can't tell.
Then it started to rain...hard...on us :) We went to the park to go play in the rain but as soon as we got there it stopped :( we still had a lot of fun but unfortunately the pictures are all really dark...so you'll just have to imagine again!
The next day was Robert's Court of Honor. Some other girls from EFY that none of us had seen since EFY showed up so it was good to see them and catch up!

Update:Cookies Wars!!!

The contestants:Jessica, Lizzy, Robert, Brandon (the boys "accidentally" forgot the aprons we made them)

We had three judges, after the first two it was a tie, Elder Soane was the deciding vote.
We won!!! This is us just after the great news, celebrating our sweet victory. You all know how much I love to win :) and no liz and i did not plan on matching.
Ours is the oatmeal one...I swear it tastes better then it looks.
After the competition we played "honey I love you"...such a fun game!! Let me explain it to those that don't know how it is played. The person that is it has to pick someone to go up to and say "Honey if you love me, smile" and the other person has to say "Honey i love you but I just can't smile"...without smiling. It gets pretty entertaing...you do funny things to make the other person smile or to make them feel uncomfortable and smile.

I was first rejected by Brandon....

...then liz...

...then robert...i have to admit it was pretty painful.

Leave it to Taylor to make everyone laugh. He got me good.

Senior Stadium Painting

At Saguaro High School the tradition is that at the beginning of the year the seniors go paint the bleachers at the football stadium...so since I'm a senior I got to do that! After we left my friend Lizzy and I realized we didn't even take a picture of our names that we signed so...you'll just have to imagine it. Needless to say we got a little dirty...actaully I think Liz and I were the messiest people there. Lots of kids didn't want to "get dirty" so we just had fun with our group of friends :) It was difficult getting the paint off my body and out of my hair but I eventually suceeded!

Me, Liz, Ashley, Jane

we're just goofy...
my mom made me smile "nicely" in one picture...i guess she doesn't enjoy all my wierd faces...who knew?
Later that day we went to Macy's and Dillards and tried on the ugliest Prom Dresses we could find...it was really entertaining! Then she came to me house and we listened to music and just talked most of the night. Fun stuff!!

Happy Labor Day!

Today marked the finale of our family weekend. It was a great trip, and this labor day was no exception. We spent the morning 'laboring' with the missionaries that are serving up here. Mark stayed busy interviewing all the missionaries so he could know how best to help them. Angie, Jessica and Taylor helped judge a competition between districts as they tried to effectively relate random objects to the restoration of the gospel. The missionaries all did a great job, so it was difficult not to give "Paula" responses to everyone. As I became more 'constructive' with my feedback, the missionaries became more insistent that I try it and show them how it was done. I drew a hanger out the grab bag and had a minute to relate it to the restoration of the gospel and invite them to learn more. I'm happy to report...I got through it. It was a lot of fun, and it included some good practice for the missionaries. They have great zone leaders up there, Elder Stephens and Elder Ashton. That training only lasted 45 minutes, and there were several others to follow. It will be great to spend the next two weeks visiting all the zones and observe their trainings.
To help keep the little boys occupied while Mark did interviews, a local ward member [Dayl Seigfried-that's him in the red shirt] invited them to the Eurofresh greenhouses near the church building. Amanda, Sister Willis and Sister Harris came, too.
They can grow up to 1 million pounds of tomatoes on the vine a week-and average 600,000 lbs. per week each year at this facility shipping all over the US and Canada. They grow the tomatoes hydroponically...w/o soil in little root beds among some coconut husk material. There were acres of greenhouses with row upon row of plants that stretch about the length of a football field. Each plant is tied to a bobbin of string and then to the ceiling. As the plants grow up, they unwind the bobbins a turn or two. The pluck off the leaves around the ripening fruit, so the bottoms are naked vines that begin to layer and stack, then fruit, then the foliage and the blossoms above them. There's a lift system that raises workers up to the ceiling to work on the plants-but the boys didn't ride it-whew!

They also had a complex system of pipes for temperature control, watering, fertilizing & everything else you can imagine, but the boys were most interested in making the 'garage doors' open and shut and playing on the conveyor belts. Jeffrey really liked the sticker machine, especially when Dayl started labeling Jeffrey with brilliant tomato labels. There were a lot of lasers and automated machinery. It was pretty cool.
These are some of the 'seconds', since they are all 'single' tomatoes and they are producing on the vine fruit. These will go...? I don't know, but he gave a couple of flats to kids to take home. Lucky us.

After interviews we started home and stopped by the Tenney's place (one of Mark's counselors). We rolled up our sleeves and helped shuck, de-silk and prep some corn for freezing. It was fun to watch dad shuck corn in his suit! The Tenney's are an incredible family. They were there with just some of their children and grandchildren including their 40th grandbaby that is 3 months old & 3 high school age grandsons just back from football practice ready to help grandma & grandpa. (yes, they were ALL cute! Hubba hubba. I'm sure we won't have trouble convincing Jessica to come up with us again.) Eva, one of the little girls, said she loved working hard for her family so her grandpa & grandma wouldn't have to do all that work by themselves. What an incredible family. President Tenney will only be Mark's counselor for a few more weeks. They will soon begin a new assignment as the Snowflake Temple President. We have loved working with them.

We weren't able to stay as long as we would have liked to since we knew the holiday traffic was going to be miserable, but we left their place with produce packed all around us. Dinner tonight was spectacular: fresh corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, crook neck squash, and string beans w/red bell peppers. The best part, we had enough corn to blanch and freeze several bags to eat up this winter! What great friends. What a great week end.

Taylor Sweet Corn & Que festival

This 3-day weekend saw us in the Taylor/Snowflake area for some speaking assignments, meetings with missionaries and a special Mission President's fireside. Last year about this time, we found ourselves here meeting members the week before the Taylor Corn and Que festival. Local members urged us to stay for the event, but our schedule wouldn't allow it. When they offered us some of their famed sweet corn, we were truly sorry we couldn't stay and hoped to be able to make back up this year with the kids in tow... and here we are! After zone conference and school on Friday, everyone packed in the car to brave the holiday traffic and make it to Snowflake for our weekend of meetings. Saturday morning was ours as a family, and we've enjoyed every minute of it. Dad finally had a chance to see the Petroglyphs in 5 mile draw. We spent some time with foot races, catching grasshoppers, swings at the park, sword (mops) fights, and then had an hour left over to visit the corn festival. Wow it's good. Hopefully, we can find some to buy on our way home Monday after our meetings are done. It was great to just spend time together being silly.

Why we love the Olympics!

I Spy Jeffrey's Birthday

Can you find:

• The edge of the world; a better view; a book that's out of this world
• Arizona 25 cent piece; 12 fossilized shark teeth; smoother stones on the way
• $1,000,000; a trilobite; a "J" for Jeffrey; 50 bucks; a pocket guide & another
• A new twist on an old fav; star wars; a smoother fossil; classic Mattel toy
• an ART guide; a chicken dinner; zoo tycoon; $10 more smiles
• My Story; 3 Geodes; Frisbee master; favorite candy bar; 1,000 ways to SPY
  

Jeff had a great 7th birthday, and we sure had fun with him. Our great nephew, Josh Tolman, came into town just in time to celebrate. He was amazed as Jeff opened his 5th gift of rocks and was still just as ecstatic. He was in rock hound heaven. His 1st rock gift showed up at 6:45 am when the bishop showed up with a 'chicken dinner' and some 1000 year old Zuni pottery from his father's ranch. After school, the office couples spoiled him with presents and his own personalized rock pile cake. All the senior missionary couples came over for a dinner that night to celebrate. Later that night, he opened rock books, rock discovery tools, rock tumblers and rocks, rocks, rocks; including some from Amanda's friend that has a brother in the mining business; some rough grade amethyst for tumbling from our Superstition Mountain mines, rocks from China, fossils from Mexico and Germany; rock's from Grandma/pa's trip to the Arctic glaciers; and of course, rocks from his brothers & sisters just because. Grandpa Gene did get him $10...that he plans on using to buy more rocks. Go Jeff!

Charla Foganera del Presidente de la mision

Each month we hold two 'firesides' so that missionaries can bring people interested in learning about the church and listen to new members share their conversion experiences. Their thoughts are often moving and poignant as they express sincere and humble witnesses of Jesus Christ, His gospel and the difference it is making in their lives. There is a sweet spirit at these meetings enhanced by music from the missionaries.

We are lucky enough to have some very gifted musicians and vocalists in our mission. I wish that I could share a snippet of the beautiful music & sweet testimonies we heard tonight. It is incredible! There is nothing like a group of young missionaries 'singing' their testimonies to melt your heart. Sister Harper, an accomplished cellist played a duet with Elder Gee (a talented young pianist and composer). Even without words, the music is powerful and moving. After a few weeks of coaxing, we were able to convince one of our very talented sisters to sing a solo. She's very humble and doesn't want to draw attention to herself so has sung in small groups and choirs in previous firesides, but she is so gifted and loves to share her testimony through song we felt like we were 'burying' her talent by not having her sing more. (Her name is Rebecca Lopez. She has a couple of CD's in English/Spanish available at deseret book stores online.) We've listened to her CD a few times, but to hear her in person, accompanied by the testimonies of people she has been teaching, was a sweet experience. We then had a choir of young elders sing a song entitled, Joseph's 1st Prayer.

Since it is so central to our message of the restoration of Christ's church, we always ask the missionaries to sing this song either as a choir, duet, solo, quartet...Twice a month they share it with us, but no matter how many times I hear it, I am touched by the beauty of its message. It surprises me sometimes. I've known this story for as long as I can remember. A simple message, a simple song-but so profound and life changing, this idea that God is our loving, interested and attentive Heavenly Parent; that He listens to all our sincere prayers...and answers them. The Spirit of God can use music as a powerful tool to connect with our hearts to teach, confirm, and reconfirm important truths.

At each of these gatherings, Mark and I also have the opportunity to share a few thoughts. The 1st Sunday evening of every month, the fireside is in English. The 3rd Sunday, everything is in Spanish, so tonight was a Spanish fireside. It is about the only consistent time I speak in Spanish. Standing in front of all those people, besides feeling nervous and a little unsure of my ability to communicate in a language I'm not comfortable with, is the overwhelming desire to connect with these beautiful people and share with them something that is so precious and dear to me; something that adds to and gives purpose to my every day; something that I know will also bless their lives. I'm honestly not conversant in Spanish, in my mind I struggle to find the correct phrases, and to me, it doesn't sound like it's coming out right. But I do believe in spiritual gifts, gifts spoken of in the New Testament. I know that when someone bears their testimony of Jesus Christ, sincerely, that the Holy Ghost will add to that witness, carrying it to the hearts of those who sincerely listen. How grateful I am for this knowledge and for the opportunity to be a part of this great work. We love it. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love all my dear family and friends and hope you are well. Happy Sunday.
Firesides-I'm not sure where the name originated, but it's an informal gathering, or meeting, designed to build friendships and strengthen each other.