Christmas 2020

It kind of looks like the Grinch stole Christmas at our house. But no. The gift is the Savior,  Light of the World. That's excellent enough. Soon we will have (parts of)  a new house. It will be a nice gathering place. Someday. 

I painted the living room yesterday.  Not bad for a novice.  

Its white. But it will be filled with things that are dark and tons of stuff to put back on the walls.

 I have been stressing about what to put on my walls. What to put back. What to change.  I really struggle with things like design and choice, not to mention color and space abs balance. However, all people who chime in and give solicited advice have talked about what do *I* like. What are my loves? What brings me joy? What makes me happy? 

Well, I love nature's beauty, and I love my family and I love the Savior.  So I think its very appropriate for me to replace, as in PUT BACK,  many of the things that were already in my living room. A painting done by a family member. A beautiful piece of art purchased by a loving family member-- on our honeymoon.  Family portraits.  And Jesus pictures.  And Books. Yeah, we love books.  A LOT. So the books stay, too. 

All that's left is furniture, and we definitely need a place to sit. Haha. And a place to sit and play the piano. It's been covered in plastic for such a long time. And we found out what cracked on the bottom back of the piano the last time I moved it. The bottom back exterior frame board pulled apart from the frame because the wheel turned and pushed the board. I guess the wheel should have been a stationary wheel when it was replaced, not a swivel one.

Merry Christmas from our torn up house to yours!

 

Why so scared?

 

Friday, December 4. Phoenix

 Happy 40th Birthday, Casey Rossman!!

Mike and I slept in last night. I had stayed up late watching a movie.

After a nice big breakfast, I took some time and attended an hour and a half of training for work that was kind of required. Suicide prevention. Necessary stuff, unfortunately.

Then I mapped out our travels for the afternoon. I packed a nice lunch and off we went. 

We saw the " working foundry, gallery, shop and Educational Monument" of Paolo Soleri, Italian architect. 1919-2013. Pretty cool. We didnt take a tour, but wandered around a bit. I really enjoyed it. Mike was "Meh". It was hard for me to not ring every single one of those bronze bells. So unique and artsy and special.

Next we went to the 4 peaks Mining store to see some pretties.  Amethyst, particularly. Stores like that are like museums and we like to look through them .

Next stop: Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home in Scottsdale, Taliesin.  Unfortunately, tickets were sold out, but I wandered a portion of the grounds that were accessible and looked thru the gift shop. That's definitely going on to my bucket list. I want to tour a FLW home. Falling Water would be my first choice, but if I'm ever back in Phoenix, this may be the one. 

Back to our place for a quick nap, then leftover smoked barbeque for dinner. And more Christmas Movies, of course. Got to get them out of my system since I dont have cable at home. Ha

Hard to believe we have been gone nearly a week. It's been great. Relaxing. Good food.  Sleeping in. Next week it's back to the cold and the real world. 

Photos of Cosanti and rocks and FLW scenes.

Cosanti  . Soleri created architecture with free form concrete. He cast ceramic and bronze bells.

And SOME prickly pear cacti are PINK.

This is just a mold on the ceiling. It looks like a post should have been placed there.

Strange pillars in the gift shop.

Outsid, hanging bells/chimes.  They had such clear and sweet tones.

This was a big one (above) hanging from ceiling/open archway.

Above. Check out unfinished ceramic tiles with nature imprints.

Above. Men working shovels in sand. We dont know what they were doing exactly, but it was kind of interesting. They were doing the moving in sync with each other: tapping, pounding, raking, patting, sweeping, turning the sand. Very weird. It was about 3 inches of sand on a concrete pad. Or maybe brick.

Big rocks/minerals at a mall where the rock shop was. And trees with smooth green bark.

Those spines are really hard and pointy.

Some photos of the ground at the home I did not tour. 

There is a lot of cool concrete and rock formations, some petroglyphs, weird shaped windows and walls, funny and sharp angles, thick walls and roofs, ... interesting stuff.   Someday.

Image below from Cosanti website

Thursday, Dec 3

 We stayed in and relaxed on Wednesday the 2nd. Used the spa in our room. Dried apples. Watched TV. Read. What had more Christmas movies. Shopped? Nope. Planned? Nope. 

Thursday we met Joel and Jane Dompier for lunch.

The rest of Thursady was more Food and Family.  We drove out to San Tan valley and met at Lesa and John's for dinner. Dahlia and her husband Clayton came, as did Massiel and Andre and their two girls. Such a fun family.  Such marvelous food . John smoked ribs and chicken.  Amazing. Add in glorious sides  and lovely conversation and it couldn't be beat.  We were home shortly after 9 pm. With doggie bags!  I think those were the best and meatiest and tenderest ribs I've ever had. And they have such a great home, smartly decorated.  Shes the one who took all of her Grandma Berenice's family history. She bought a huge armoire to put it in

 And it all fits! Except the journals which are elsewhere. She took us on a tour of their home and yard. John built an outside kitchen. They grow hydroponic plants; and recently he has taken up metal forging! Fun folks.

We missed seeing the other Linarte kids(Logan and Family), but he had to do surgery that evening and one of their kids had soccer. I didnt even know PA's could do surgery. He specializes from elbow to fingertips in orthopedic surgery. 

Lesa's home was decked out for Christmas. These were by her dining table.

Verde River Railroad, 12/1/2020

 We drove to Clarkdale, AZ. They have a scenic train ride through the Verdi River Canyon. A four hour excursion . Peak fall colors and Christmas Decorations going up.  The car was comfy, we wore masks,  we brought our lunch.  There was also an outdoor viewing car, but we didnt last long out there. You could not hear the narration. I bought their magazine and need to read it. We enjoyed the excursion.  Some photos for your viewing pleasure. 

Phoenix, November 30, 2020

 

We got away for a bit by driving down to Phoenix the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Just me and Mike.  The drive was uneventful and we like that.  Not early to bed. Slept in Sunday. Readied for online church. Only one of the two meetings worked. Half was better than none. 

I mapped out our "plans," which includes dinner with family members(Lesa &John Nuccio) on Thursday,  some sight seeing, and a train ride in Clarkdale on Tuesday.

After a Monday morning sales meeting about Timeshares, we had a good breakfast of hashbrowns and eggs and "ham", then drove to Scottsdale and saw some horses,

Rabbits "One-Eyed-Jack",

Arizona Falls, 

Decorated agave plants, the Solaris Bridge.

Doors and Sounds sculpture. Pretty cool.

Sushi and a bento box for lunch at a noodle shop.

Fun day. Pie for dinner, then Christmas movies on TV for the evening. I also dried apples all day. :-)