Beautiful Tulips

Kelly gave me these tulips, aren't they beautiful! I don't think I've ever seen tulips this
color. I'm enjoying them. I'm slowly starting to work on my flower bed garden. I'm
thinking I'm going to cut back that flowering plant I put out front, it's like Jack-&-The
Beanstalk & it has just taken over the whole flower bed. I've cut it back several times
& it just does it again. It is nice that it does well in the Arizona heat & even keeps flowers
in the winter, but after I saw a black King snake crawl in there last summer I'm a little
spooked about getting my hands in it. It will be alot of digging & work but I think it will
look great along the south fence-line!!

In the last two weeks I've taken Kelly into the eyecenter twice to have a radiation treatments
to burn a hole through scar tissue that has grown over his pupils & he says he was seeing
things kinda through a harze. The optomologist say that when a person as young as Kelly
has cataracks? like he has, removed in the last several years, they sometimes grow scar
tissue that covers the pupil. On this last procedure Kelly woke up the day after his procedure
and couldn't see very well because his pupil was still so dialated. So since he decided to take
the day off , he said lets go to the temple & do the baptisms for family members that I've been wanting to get done.

It was pretty cool because a young single adult or young married lady came & sat by
me & we were waiting by the font. They took her first & I noticed that her name on the
monitor read Mortensen. I thought, oh my goodness we might could be related. So when
she finished & was walking back to the locker room I stopped her & said I'd noticed her
name was Mortensen & that my Grandmother was Amanda Mortensen from the M.
colonies in Mexico & that we were decendents of Morten Peder Mortensen & we could
be related. She said yes, that was her ancestor also!! Cool, I knew I had to talk to her then
because she'd be long gone when I got back to the locker room. Cool huh, little miracles
happen to me like that all the time when I go to the temple. Special day!!

Special Day for Trinity Nicole Gothard

We attended Trinity's Baptism on Feb. 6th. I remember her inviting me clear
back in May so I know she was looking forward to this day. She's #8 of our 19
grandchildren to be Baptized so they are really growing up fast. And McCade Curby
turns 8 in June of this year.
Grandma Gothard gave the talk on Baptism & she said her husband was a member
of the church & she joined the church when she was 26 & her son-in-law's grandmother
was getting baptized in a few days & she is 93 yrs. old. So you can join the church at any
age after 8 yrs. old. Lauren's mother attended the Baptism with Shaun & Lauren & she
said she thought it was nice how all the family members participated in various ways at
the Baptism. Now she know's what an L.D.S. Baptsim is like.
Brent shared with us that he & a friend at his work have been instrumental in sharing
the gospel & finding missionaries to teach the family of a fellow co-worker & they
will be joining the church soon.
We had a lovely dinner at Julie's home after the Baptism & enjoyed yummy food & visiting.
I'm always so busy visiting that I don't ever seem to get many pictures taken. So this is
the only one I got.

We've gotten our exercise hauling wheelbarrow, after wheelbarrow of wood to the
backyard woodpile.

Alot of these were just to heavy for me to lift into the wheelbarrow so I rolled them to the back &

even that was quite a work out. I'm beginning to think this property might start

to be a little much for us. It would take a full time gardner & groundskeeper to

keep this place in shape & like I would like it to look. We might have to plan a

family outdoor B.B.Q. later on. It was just something to contemplate how Kelly

& his dad bought & planted these trees some 30 yrs. ago & my how big they have grown!!

Tree Safely Down

Hurray!!!!! The huge tree that was blown over across our driveway is safely down.
I was feeling bad about probably having to give up $100 to have someone cut down
the tree safely not wanting Kelly to try it after his last experience breaking a foot
while trying to cut down just a limb. So I called several tree extraction Co.'s & guess
what they quoted me $600-$1,000 whew!!! So was I ever happy when Paul's friend
Gary said he'd had a little experience that way & we paid him the $100 to cut it down.
Calvin pulled out the stump with his grader & whalaaaa we've been cutting up wood &
limbs and hauling it off ever since. So the driveway entrance is open again but it wasn't
until after Kelly cut off the bottom limb then braved driving under the rest of the tree
with the car, hanging a far left & only inch or two above the car!! I did not like that!
He can be a bit reckless but the car was spared. Thank goodness, it's a good thing!!

We've cut up limbs & branches & filled this garbage can so many times I've lost count!!

And still have this to go.

Frolicking Coyotes in Backyard

One morning I was sitting at the counter eating my breakfast & looked outside & saw
two frolicking coyotes near the date tree. They really like eating those dates. I wanted
to get some closer pictures but they were pretty skidish so I did the best I could without
scaring them. They played around the date tree for quite sometime before one ran
across the yard heading up north & the other ran further out in the back-back yard.

You can barely see him right in center below the palm tree. It was pretty fun watching
them. One jumped up on top of the white camper top & ran around & jumped off.
I see them quite often crossing the back yard. And lately there's been a couple of
hansome roadrunners checking out the backyard & coming right up close to the window.