Posted in Show and Tell Friday

Happy Friday!  It's time again for Show and Tell Friday with Canadagirl - please do pop over to visit Mary if you'd like to take part or visit the other S&Ts today.

Last weekend hubby and I took our boys and niece north in search of some fall color.  It was mostly on the ground yet (low-lying plants that had turned a lovely red hue), but some trees were beginning to turn ever-so-slightly.  We went to one of our favorite parks, and lo and behold what should we find?  Not one, but TWO trees in full color - standing next to each other no less.  So, while those photos are a bit strained for proper proportions and all, I *had* to work them into some photos.  I was aiming for school photos of the boys, but these didn't turn out to my satisfaction, so I'm going to have to do something else.  I'm disappointed, but I did the best I could at the time considering that there was a middle school and high school track event going on all around us, and my batteries were dying and I had no spares. :P

Anyway, all we pretty much did was easy hiking, exploring, and just enjoying the day.  Enjoy!

Posted in Show and Tell Friday

Happy Friday, and welcome!  Today is Show and Tell Friday with Canadagirl, and if you would like to take part, please head over to Mary's.

Have you done the math?  I have.  Christmas is three months from today - 91 days from now.  Does that cause a little panic to flutter within?  It does me, and I've begun my gifts already!  Due to a change in thought and a decrease in funds, I've begun making more and more gifts each Christmas for the past couple of years.  This year is no different; in fact, I'm now trying to make over 50% of the gifts we exchange.  To that end, I thought I'd share with you the three afghans I've completed thus far, and the new one I've just begun.  I've finally learned how to read a crochet pattern, (I'm mostly self-taught with a little help from my mom), and love experimenting with new patterns.  The one I've just begun is a fun one; it's a shell pattern.  Anyway, here are the completed throws:

And here is the new one:

Thanks for visiting, and have a great weekend!

Posted in Show and Tell Friday

 

Today I thought I'd take you on a little tour of our trailer.  I was actually asked awhile ago to hear a little about when we lived in our trailer when we first moved to Arizona.  I'm happy to take you through it, and hope you enjoy the tour.

Anywho, here is our trailer, ready to hit the road.  Just looking at it makes me want to drive forever, but I digress.

Here is our living/dining area.  They are both part of what's called a 'slide-out,' which means that a section of the trailer actually slides out away from the trailer so your room in the trailer is expanded.  You can also see the 'bar' and stools of the kitchen in this shot.  And the location of the bathroom (door left of center) and the pantry (to the right of the bathroom).  Hey, it's a trailer.  It's not like we travel by bus like my folks, lol, and have separate rooms.

Here's the kitchen, and you can also see the boys' bunks to the right.  They have a door, strangely enough, at the foot of their bunks, which is lovely for fresh air circulation when the weather is cooperating.  The door is to accomodate storage, as the bottom bunk picks up and you can slide bikes and larger items in there.  We don't use it for that, but love the door there all the same.  And yes, that is a microwave, large fridge, and oven you see.  *blush*  Guess our idea of 'roughing it' isn't so rough, lol.  But we're not as bad as my parents, who have a washer/dryer in theirs.  So there.

Here is the bathroom, complete with a mini-bathtub.  Yup, yup.

Finally, here's our bedroom:

If you would like more information on how to participate in Show and Tell Fridays, please go visit Mary.

Posted in Show and Tell Friday

Happy Friday, and welcome to my first Show &Tell Friday with Canadagirl in far too long!  If you have something you'd like to share with us, please do go visit Mary.

A few weeks ago it was my husband's birthday, and so we decided to go camping up in Flagstaff for a long weekend.  Flagstaff is at a significantly higher elevation than where we are down here in the valley, so their temperatures run, on average, 30° cooler than ours.  Needless to say, it's a popular summer destination for the valley residents.  We headed up on Wednesday and set up camp in the beautiful Ponderosa Pines.

Thursday was hubby's actual birthday, and we let him plan the whole weekend, so we were off on a day trip (me? I'd sit at the campsite and NEVER MOVE, because that's a vacation to me, but he's an on-the-go kind of guy. So, off we went.) to the Sunset Crater just NE of Flagstaff.

Apparently, the whole northern part of Arizona would be relatively flat except that it's a hot-bed of volcanic activity.  Okay, inactive volcanic activity, but another eruption would not surprise scientists.  Pretty much all the mountains that can be seen up there were once volcanoes.  You can still see the lava flow from the most recent volcano, Sunset Crater, which erupted roughly 1,000 years ago.  Due to too many man-made disturbances, they have shut down the trail up to Sunset Crater (unless you're Native American, who use it for ceremonies), but you are more than welcome to climb up others.  Which we, pant, pant, *gasp*, did.  Still recuperating from that.  About 300 yards almost totally vertical.  Anyway... see the black rock on the right? That's the lava flow.

After enjoying a couple of walks (see above photo, taken on the footpath at the base of Sunset Crater), we got back in our truck and headed the 20 some miles to the Wupatki Pueblo. This would have been inhabited when Sunset Crater last erupted, and it boggles the mind to think of what the people must have thought, doesn't it?  It's beautifully preserved, and has a fascinating history.  Here's the village pueblo:

Here's the community gathering place (it was a huge circle):

After this trip, we headed home to celebrate:

The next morning, we got up and headed to the Grand Canyon, which is about 85 miles NNW of Flagstaff.  We had a beautiful day for it and enjoyed a lovely drive.

We first stopped at National Geographic's visitor center, which is incredible.  I picked up a living school book for each of the boys for our next school year, which is always fun.  We got "Brighty of the Grand Canyon" by Marguerite Henry and "The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons" by John Wesley Powell, who, incidentally, was a Civil War veteran who, with nine other men, took four boats into the Colorado river to explore the last unmapped territory of the continental United States.  This book is a compilation of J.W. Powell's journals from that journey, and this boat is an exact replica Hollywood made when they filmed the story:

After purchasing our admission tag, we hopped in the truck and headed the last few miles to the Grand Canyon.  We stopped at the National Park Service's visitor center as well.  Here's Jigger standing in front of a representation of the layers of rock, sediment, etc., that the Grand Canyon is comprised of:

Finally, here's the Grand Canyon:

And here's a shot when I was playing around with my camera settings.  I actually have several of these sepia toned photos, and prefer them to the full on color photos.

While we were there, we saw three California Condors.  These birds have been on the endangered list, and were recently re-released into the Grand Canyon.  We had read up on that before we went, and were properly awed every single time they flew overhead.  Of course, I didn't get a photo of them, which, upon seeing a picture of them up close, Piper remarked was probably a good thing, lol.

While there, we had so much fun listening to all of the different languages and seeing all of the different people.  It was amazing.  We heard Asian (several dialects), Italian, Spanish, French, British, German, and Dutch, just to name a few.  Piper was asked by a French family to take their photo, and we (unwittingly) asked a portly, older Italian gentleman to take ours.  My pathetic Italian language skills didn't allow me to pick up that he wanted to know where the zoom was until the photo was done, but that's okay, because we have the memory of that photo of his congenial frustration and my non-existant Italian conversation.  Here's the final product:

We sat awhile...:

before heading back to our truck.  By the by, if you like, you can take a train directly to the Grand Canyon.  That seems like the way to travel to Jigger:

And that's our trip north.  Saturday hubby did give me one day to sit around the campsite, so we did a long Nature Walk and played board games around the drizzly rain.  It was lovely.  Can't wait to go back.

Posted in Show and Tell Friday

I thought I'd share with you our trip over Mother's Day weekend for this Friday's Show 'n Tell.  I can already tell you that this post is going to be looooooonnnnggggg, so if you need a potty break or a cup of coffee/tea, hop to it.  I'll wait.  Incidentally, I began with 79 photos that were loaded to photobucket to use in this post.  I tried to be judicious during the selection process - you're welcome.  Also, it's interesting to note that I've always sighed when I read of a fellow blogger who decided to break her post into two because it had gotten TOO BIG.  I always figured I'd much rather read everything at once (no patience, here).  Well, I realize now it's not so much for the sake of the readers as it is for the blogger.  Firstly, it takes a certain amount of je ne sais quois to think that someone is actually going to want to voluntarily plow through your tome; I mean, really, other women have LIVES, you know.  Secondly, if you knew how many man hours went into this post - holy cow.  I shudder to think what I could have creatively accomplished around the house had I funnelled these hours into more domestic endeavours.  Nonetheless, on I will plow.  You should know, though, that the following is not for the faint of heart, or the short of time.  Good luck.

For Mother's Day, hubby and the boys took us all camping down to Tucson.  To be honest, it's not our first choice as a vacation destination in this state (not even top 5), but it was our first trip with the new truck (and no sway bars yet), so hubby wanted a pretty level shot towing.  So, Tucson it was.  And what fun we had!!

We got a late start on Friday due to hubby working longer than anticipated/hoped for, but we still managed to get down shortly after sunset (it's about a 2 hour drive).  We stayed at an RV resort, not a state campground, and here I have to interject a bit of information for my non-desert-dwelling readers.

We stayed in state campgrounds all the time back in Michigan.  We *loved* them!  Apparently, they are not the same thing here, and so have never stayed in one.  Maybe we'd be pleasantly surprised, but probably not.  Here privately owned RV parks are much more the norm, and offer more of what we like in a campground:  full hook-ups (hello, it's summer in Arizona, and I NEED my A/C), swimming pool (see previous comment), and convenient location.  Plus, we make our reservation and they check us in no matter the time (learned this last year when we had our 3-hour tour trip, but I digress).  Anyway, that is why we stay in private RV parks.  Oh, while we're aside like this, can I just tell you how ODD it is to camp without GRASS???  All there is is rock and pavement.  It's surreal, that's for sure.  Getting back to our story...

Where was I?  Oh yeah, Friday.  Anyway, we set up camp, grabbed a bite to eat, and then relaxed for the evening.  Got up bright and early Saturday morning and had breakfast outside before packing a lunch and heading out for the day.  (Notice no grass - but as a perk, yes, each campsite comes standard with that nice table and chair set.)

Our first stop of the day was at San Xavier Mission, which is the oldest Catholic mission in the United States.  You can read more about it and see photos (click on "History") of the iconography that fill the church HERE.  (I was uncomfortable taking photos inside the church; this is an active parish and there were people praying - us among them.)  Here are our photos of our visit there.

The above photo and the following photo were taken at a little chapel in the courtyard of the mission.  The photo seen below is one of the stations of the cross that was embedded in the wall surrounding the tiny chapel.

On the mission grounds, there is a hill that you can climb up to a grotto (devoted to Our Lady of Lourdes), and then make the final push up to the cross.  This is from the first level of the hill:

The grotto was absent of all statuary due to restoration, so I won't show you pictures of an empty grotto (see that judicious selection process at work; or rather, *don't* see it).  The men decided to take a break before climbing to the top.

Here are some shots I took whilst waiting for the men to reach the top (don't be fooled - it's not this green but in a few, very few, farming spots around the state):

And, finally, at the top:

Here are some nature shots I just couldn't resist that can be found in the landscaping all around the mission:

a prickly pear cactus blooming

a barrel cactus in bloom

a purple prickly pear cactus

See the cute roadrunner in the shade?  They are increasingly difficult to spot out and about, so had to snap a photo of the little guy (or gal):

We also got mooned by a prairie dog, but I'm trying to be judicious.  If you want to see it, let me know and I'll throw it in.

We had a lovely time, wrapping up our visit with some Indian Fry bread we bought from a vendor.  Sorry, didn't get any photos of the Fry bread, it disappeared too quickly, but here's one of the vendors in front of the mission:

the 'roof' of the shelter was made from the twigs of the ocotillo cactus; I thought this was pretty:

After our visit, we hit the highway and headed south.  We wound up at the Missile Silo Museum.

Back during the cold war, the United States of America had 54 Titan 2 Missiles located in three cities in three states.  18 each were located in Wichita, Kansas, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Tucson, Arizona.  After the cold war, all but one silo were deactivated and destroyed.  This museum is the only one that remains.  The 103 ft. Titan 2 Missile is still in the silo, and the whole place gives off an air of "deactivated.... for now" kind of feeling.  Piper asked what it would take to reactivate the site, and was never directly answered.  We were told that there are over 400 modern missiles at-the-ready like this throughout the United States (that thought gave me surprisingly little comfort), and so reactivating this one would be unnecessary.  Still doesn't answer his question.  Here's an artist's rendering of what's below ground:

Here is a model of the missile in its silo:

We waited in the informational part of the museum until our hour and 15 minute tour began.

This is part of the missile guidance system.  Piper got to talking to the man next to him, who said that he actually works with these nowadays and they're now the size of somewhere between a softball and a volleyball.  This one was the size of at least three soccer balls!

Then we watched an informational video full of history bits and terrifying footage of what a nuclear bomb would do to a house.  After the kids were properly awed, we headed outside to tour the missile site at ground-level.

When the missile silo was converted into a museum, they removed the top and put a glass ceiling over it so that you can look down all nine stories of the silo.  Here is my unsuccessful attempt at getting a photo through the glass.  There really was no good place to shoot from, so I tried using my shadow to help.  Oh well.

After our tour above ground, we descended to the second story of the silo.  Our tour guide showed us around the control center:

Ray (our tour guide) took a shine to Jigger, and so Jigger was picked to help Ray simulate a missile launch.

Here it's interesting to note that each level was built on platforms that were held up/together by springs.  This was a shock-absorber.  Everything they did was to contain the blast and absorb the shock.  It was an amazing piece of engineering.

Here's a photo of the missile from the second floor:

Here's a long hallway connecting the missile silo with the middle building (stairwell), and for you movie buffs, a scene in Star Trek: First Contact was shot here:

All in all, this was a lovely field trip, and well worth the time and money.  After this, we were more than ready to hit the pool:

The next morning, before leisurely heading home, we went to Mother's Day mass at St. Augustine's Cathedral after a lovely breakfast.  Oh, and calling our mothers and grandmothers too, of course.

Happy Mother's Day!!

If you'd like to participate in Show and Tell with Canadagirl, or just read more S&T's, please do go visit Mary.  And if you're still reading, do go have a bit of a lie-down to compensate.  I know I am.

Posted in Show and Tell Friday

Welcome back to another installment of Show and Tell Friday with Canadagirl.  If you have something you would like to share, please go see our lovely hostess, Mary, for more information.

Okay, so my S&T today is a bit unorthodox (for me, at any rate).  My Show and my Tell are unrelated.  So there.

First, my Tell.  This morning, after 18 months of working, scrimping, saving, and committment, we have paid off our last credit card bill.  Now, to many of you, that's not a big deal.  To others, however, you get the excitement of that statement.  We now have only our main loans left (mortgage, car, travel trailer, student loan).  That's it.  In the past 18 months, we have paid off 7 *wince* credit cards to the tune of around $13,000 *double wince*.  We made some mistakes, got forced down those dark roads of charging, but were dedicated to getting out of it.  I don't enjoy sharing this with you (well, the celebratory part of it I do), but I'm doing so because of two reasons:  1) this is a 'punishment' of sorts; if you don't admit what you did wrong, you run a high risk of repeating your mistakes, and 2) if this can inspire, encourage, or help someone else, then it's worth it.  So, wa-hoo us!!!  Ü

Now, let's see what I can find for my Show:

There we go, a nice photo of the lake up north from last weekend.

Whew.  What a moment.  I think I'm going to be a little dazed all day.

Posted in Show and Tell Friday

Welcome to this latest installment of Show 'n Tell Friday with Canadagirl!  If you would like to participate, please go visit my dear friend Mary for more information.

This past Sunday, hubby and I decided to take advantage of his rare shift change.  He usually works daytime hours, but for the past week and half has been on 2nd shift hours.  Since he didn't have to leave for work until 2ish, we decided on the spur of the moment to head up north for the night.  (In the interest of telling the truth, I was going stir-crazy and he told me to "pack my bags."  LOL)

So, we threw our overnight bags in the truck and off we went.  Three hours later we were checking into our hotel, and another half an hour after that found us outside, enjoying the cooler mountain clime.  We took a favorite hike of ours along the Mogollon Rim, and the boys had a wonderful time exploring the area while hubby and I sat on a boulder and talked (and held hands and smooched, if you must know).  Here are a few pictures of our hike along the Rim:

(that's Piper above walking along the path; the path was paved for the first 0.3 mile, and then dirt for the remaining 0.7 mile)

Where's the boy?

Along the hike, we (literally) crossed paths with the original road into town; you can read more about the Rim Road here.  Here is the original road:

After our hike, we grabbed a pizza and watched the sun set, then went back to the hotel where the boys swam for hours and yours truly sat in the hot tub until I got pruny.

(sorry for picture quality - I'm still trying to figure out how to make my extremely amateur digital camera turn out high-quality photos like Alyssa's high-quality digital camera *grin*)

The next day we got up, had breakfast, and headed home.  (*sigh*)  The trip home entails driving through the Salt River Canyon, and this trip we decided to prolong our all-too-brief holiday and so stopped and enjoyed a respite from travelling.  Here is our stop about half-way down into the canyon (we're headed for the bottom, folks):

Across the canyon, you can see the road we will be taking carving its way up the moutain side:

Once down at the bottom, we stopped at the rest area, where you can buy some authentic Indian jewelry (I thought of you, Mary, the minute I saw this display; this display is only about 1/6th of what was available jewelry-wise there.  There was also a table where you could buy Indian Fry Bread... yummmm.),

or you could take the stairs down to the river and hike around:

So, that is our 24 hour trip.  Literally.  We left the house at 12.25 p.m. on Sunday and pulled into the driveway at 12.24 p.m. Monday.  But as hubby says, it was so relaxing it felt like an entire weekend.

Incidentally, this is my 200th post.  While there are many of you who have hit more than that, there are also those of you who are surprised to see me hit this - as am I.  When I took my bloggy break last year, I didn't really intend to come back.  I'm so very glad I did, but still struggle with finding that balance.  I know you all do as well, and that's what keeps me from throwing the towel in.  So, here's to 200 more!

Posted in Show and Tell Friday

Happy Friday everyone, and welcome back to Show and Tell Fridays with Canadagirl.  If you would like to share a memory with us, we'd love to read about it, so please go visit my dear friend Mary to get started.

Last weekend I participated in Cindy Rushton's Talk-A-Latte seminar.  While listening, and in between sporadic chatting, I finished up my newest afghan.  I went through almost three skeins during the two-day conference, and celebrated with the gals at the end of Saturday when I tied it off.  They requested a photo, and so I immediately thought, "There's my Show and Tell post!"  lol

So, without further ado, here is the afghan I made for my grandmother for Christmas during the TAL seminar.  It is the same as the previous afghan I made, which means it is a lap afghan.  I did 10 rows of single stitch, 10 rows of double stitch, and repeated.  I ended with 10 rows of single stich.  This took 5 full skeins, plus a little out of a 6th to finish the last 3 1/2 rows.

To these gift boxes, I will add a loaf of homemade wheat bread, a jar of homemade apple jelly, and cookies.  These gifts are essentially complete, with only the foodstuffs to add at the last moment.  This makes the third completed gift I have made, and this eases quite a bit of worry from my mind, I can tell you.  Is anyone else working on Christmas gifts?  I'd love to see/read what you're working on!

Posted in Show and Tell Friday

It's time again for Show and Tell Friday with Canadagirl.  If you have something you'd like to share with bloggyland, please do participate, but be sure to visit Mary to sign up.

Now, as my most faithful readers know (all 3 of you), I miss the autumn season dreadfully.  I love the brisk morning air, the crunch of leaves underfoot, the frost on the ground, the smell of the air, the shortening of days, the holiday anticipation building, the smell of wood smoke, and snuggling under a blanket with a hot cup of anything.  I know, I don't know what I'm doing here in the desert, either.

Anyway, a friend of mine back in Michigan has a son turning 5 this month, and for one of their homeschool projects, they collected colored maple leaves and pressed them between wax paper.  Imagine my surprise and delight to open the mail after a particularly trying day this past Monday to find this piece of autumn all the way from Michigan:

Wasn't that so sweet of them?  I hung it over my kitchen sink, and gaze at it lovingly every time my glance catches it.

I think that we all get caught up in grand gestures that never really are seen through, and forget that it's the simple things in life that bring the most joy.  Now, who do I pass this forward to is the question of the day.

Posted in Show and Tell Friday

It's Show and Tell Friday with Canadagirl again, and we would love to come visit you!  If you would like to take part, please first go visit our lovely hostess Mary for more information.

Last week I shared with you the afghan I made for my mother-in-law for Christmas.  I highly encourage everyone to think of the holiday gift-giving time as an opportunity to begin returning to simpler times.  Your gift need not be spectacularly expensive, nor even rather spectacular.  Instead, give of your time and talent:  find something you enjoy doing and that you do with moderate success, and bless others.  I discovered that I have an affinity for crocheting; not only do I enjoy it, but I seem to be reasonably good at it.  I expand my repetoire of different stitches as I feel comfortable, and I treat myself with time spent crocheting at the close of every day.

10 days ago I began an afghan for my husband's grandmother.  Working diligently and steadily, I spent 9 days on it.  It is now finished, and I have two Christmas gifts done.  It is such a wonderful feeling!  I was telling my husband last night that I think I may make some lavendar-scented sachet bags, wrap them in the center of the afghans, wrap the afghans in Christmas paper, and get them in a box to be mailed back home.  That way, I need only add some goodies from the kitchen at the last minute, and those two households are complete.  What a time, money, and energy saver!  It's not too late to start making your own Christmas gifts; just make sure you make them a daily priority and habit, or you'll wind up frustrated.

Here is the afghan I completed just last night.

It took a little longer to start than previous afghans, because I decided to teach myself the double-stitch for this one.  I crocheted 10 rows of single stitch, then 10 of double, and repeated through the afghan.  I paid $2.28 per skein of yarn, used 5 skeins, and so spent a total of $11.40 + tax on this.  The value isn't in the money, however, it's in the labor and love that goes into any homemade gift. 

As we approach Christmas, I will be sharing other ideas to help keep the cost of Christmas down.  If you have any suggestions, please do share!