Who knew? Apparently everyone but me.

This afternoon my friend, Carol Gardner, took me shopping. We

go to yard sales in the summer and have hit second hand stores

in the winter. But today she told me about these new stores.

They are second hand or consignment stores with women's

clothing. They were so fun! I liked Echo the best. A cute

and fun lady runs it and she has great stuff in there! I mentioned

it to a couple of friends at a dinner we went to tonight and

they all knew about these places. I am always behind when

it comes to shopping.

I am excited to learn about these stores because I want

to take my girls there when they come up. Another thing to do!!

Just so you know I ran EIGHT miles today. I'm dead
but I did it.

We Have A Fever

We had a licensed contractor out today. He poked his head

up in our crawl space and then he came down and told us

that we do have some weight baring problems.

Evidently, our "trusses" are not actually trusses

by today's standards. They are "conventionally built".

Nothing wrong with that except we might have all the

weight of the "trusses" baring on one cross beam.

Dan, the contractor, was just shaking his head. He did

say that to this point the house has really held up but

this storm was one too many and the weight of the snow put

pressure on those "trusses" and, therefore, the beam. Nothing

is going to fall through but Dan didn't want to crawl

any closer because he thinks we would have more

ceiling damage with his weight there. So now we wait for the adjuster.

What Was Up is Down

The snow is off our roof but it had to go somewhere.Front Yard
Back Yard

More Back Yard

One Last Picture from the Storm.

David took this picture of a highway department truck

that went off the road just north of Show Low on Hwy 77.

Might be there for a while.

My Poor Little House

This storm is officially the heaviest one we have had

in the past 30 years of living in this house. Here's the scary proof.

We have two cracks that have appeared since last night.

The top one is in the kitchen and the second one is in

the living room. (the living room crack has been there for

years but it is longer and wider now) They both run east

to west.

We have hired some guys to shovel the snow off
the roof. Hope they get here in time.

Where does the white go when the snow melts?

My husband, David, took me for a ride in his big truck so I

could take a few pictures around town.

~

Below is snow pushed to the

end of the church parking lot. I know it doesn't show but

these piles are about 15 feet high. It took the whole day for

the guy and his loader to clear the parking lot. Snow and icicles on the church.

Ouhhh. This is the firehouse in the country club. It had wood trusses.
David thinks it needed metal trusses to withstand the weight. The
walls weren't hurt so it could have been alot worse.

This was just a pretty street in the country club.

Of course, we got stuck. David wanted to check on a family in our

ward. I won't go into details but when we reached the end

of the plowed road he decided to plow on himself. Didn't happen.

We eventually were pulled out by the backhoe that was supposed to

have cleared the road earlier. In the end David was glad

to be there at that time. Getting stuck made that happen.

He and the backhoe driver were able to move the family

car and clear the road.

I have to say I was ticked that my plans for the early evening were

scratched. But there was a good feeling when David got

back in the truck. That felt better than being mad.

The snow was actually too high for his lifted truck. He

just high centered.

This is Gibson's horse pasture on Woodland Lake Rd.

It is pretty in every season.

The Rim Road. (I should have known that David

was looking to test out his truck when we veered

off on this road.

I wish this picture was more clear. These are homes

in Woodland Hills. I just liked all the roofs at different heights.

The road on the backside of our loop.

These are the Blue Spruce trees in our front yard.

I think they look stately.

Happy Snow!

Always Snowing But Never Christmas

I am hurrying to make this post. I have electricity right now. (kinda sounds

like I am on an alien planet or on one of the earth's poles and making a plea for help.)

These pictures are from this morning. I wish they could show how hard

it is snowing. It is beautiful and amazing.

Sorry, I am only taking pictures from the comfort of my home.
We lifted the wipers off the windows of my car.
It looks like a little bug.

Our fence if a four foot fence. The snow is almost to the top of it.

Back yard. It just stays pristine. I am not sure where or if

Boo is doing her business. It ain't out there.....

I like the snow on the roofs of the sheds

This is the forecast from NOAA

Winter Storm Warning

~

Today: Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 34. Southwest wind around 21 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 8 to 12 inches possible.

~

Tonight: Snow. Low around 24. Southwest wind between 11 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 7 to 11 inches possible.

~

Saturday: Snow showers likely, mainly before 11am. Cloudy, with a high near 30. Southwest wind between 11 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

~

Saturday Night: A 30 percent chance of snow showers, mainly before 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 15. West northwest wind between 6 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.

LAST MAN STANDING

I haven't posted about running for a while. I titled this post Last Man Standing because I am. For different reasons others have needed to drop out. My good friend and trainer, Patty Wright, has had a series of assaults on her feet that have taken her out of the running. I am still very grateful to her for encouraging me to run. It really has opened my mind to doing new things. Even hard things.

~

I have to say that this past month I have been on the fence.

It is getting harder and I began to question my ability to actually run 12.6 miles...

in a row...before the sweeper car had to come and pick me up.

~

So this past Saturday I decided I was going to bump up my

run. It was a 6 mile Saturday and

I ran 7 miles. It was a huge thing for me...for my mind. Twice around Osprey and once around the park. I did it. I stopped to use the potty at the park

but I did it.

David has watched me run several times and he has encouraged (that

is putting it mildly) me to stop shuffling. But I started trying to

lengthen my stride in my shorter runs and I think it really

made a difference for the 7 mile run. It is harder but more efficient

to take longer strides. I didn't do a full out stride the whole

time but I was able to do pretty well. I felt so pleased with myself

when I got home. And it feels good to run with some strength.

~

When I get to my stop sign coming out of my loop I am ready

to run. I usually turn left and head for Woodland Hills.

This is the entrance street into Woodland Hills. The stop sign

at the end of this road used to take "hours" to get to. I try to

run good here because there are ward members who live on

this street. How prideful is that?This is Osprey. You can see the hill at the end. I try to go faster

and stride better up hills. They take forever if you just

shuffle along. I keep thinking there is a metaphor in there

somewhere when the hardest places are attacked with

more speed.Stop sign at the top of Osprey. When I hit here I know it

is going to go downhill for a bit. Yea!This is the road behind Charlie Clarks. It is really pretty

and quiet and there is a young woman who is driving out

of the driveway on the right some mornings and she

always gives me the thumbs up smile.

When I come out at El Rancho I know I am on my way

home. Yea, again!

I run on the sidewalk on 260. (Here I try and run my

best....I don't want to get laughed at.) I used to worry that

how my hair looked, etc. Then one day it hit me that I am

running and nobody else out there is so if I have bad hair

day I don't care.

Once I get to the Chevron I turn back towards the Park.

I am always a little concerned about the cars on this

part. People are in a hurry on this road and I have to

be sure I am out of the way.

Don't drink orange juice if you have to run far.

I was very glad that the city has left this bathroom

open for the winter. Saved my life!

The path around the lake is a mile. It can get pretty

boring if I run it for all of my miles. When I ran it on

Saturday I came across a man with a camera who asked

me "is the Eagle still up in the tree?" Maybe I didn't

look to beat up so he thought I might be looking for

birds too. It just struck me funny.

I took Boo one morning and nobody was there so I

let her go. She had a great time. But she went out

on the ice. If she had fallen through I would have

had to let her go. I felt stupid for letting that happen.

Fortunately the ice was pretty solid and she

didn't find anything interesting on barren ice anyway so

she came back to the trees.

Reasons I keep running.

• My children were never allowed to quit when they started a sport. Except for injury.
• I think my children are liking this.
• There is a sense of accomplishment.
• Good for the mind and the behind.
• It is my time. Patty always told me that. I see it.

Downside to running.

• I am always tired.
• I always hurt.
• It takes up morning time so I get less done.
  
  

Weekend Visitors

Tim and Connie came to visit this weekend. It has been a while since they

were up. We really enjoyed our weekend. I didn't take any

pictures of us playing Wii or Mexican Train but it

was fun none the less. I enjoyed having some one

to play games with. I think I tweeked my left hip

bowling on Wii. Is that possible? I hardly had to

move but my hip is so sore today. Connie thought

she hurt her rotator cuff. And I did notice that

Tim's scores were gradually decreasing and

he didn't have as much slam power for strikes in

our last game. It sorta makes you tired too...but so fun. Mikey watching TV. Connie says this is his usual way

of watching TV.
Abbey loves to color. I loved watching her.

mmm...mmmm...good.

But messy. (hot fudge sundae)

Connie and Abbey making a Valentine Gingerbread house.

Abbey and Gingerbread house.

We finally got an inch or two of snow for Abbey and

Mikey to play in. They went out and tried to fix Megan

and Melanie's snowman in the front yard.

Can you tell what this is?

It is the funniest thing! When Tim and Connie were getting

ready to go they couldn't find Abbey's pink glittery shoe. We

looked all over. Then Tim, who brought his snow boots up,

noticed that they didn't have any laces in them, which was odd, so he looked

closer at them and there was her shoe. (Oh, the the trained eye of a law enforcement

officer.)She must have stuck her foot in his boot and

when she pulled it out it stuck.

(No, she didn't remember that.)

Bishop Merrill's First Wedding

David performed his first wedding on Saturday. I thought he did a nice job.

He wasn't nervous and he didn't go on and on and on.

I still chuckle because it seems strange to me that these

are the things he does now. He has the authority to marry people.

That is amazing. Side Note: I think the good people of our ward are very believing that David is

the Bishop and he indeed has the authority and position

to take care of our ward. Also he says he feels more comfortable

(if that is the right word) now. Not as nervous and feels like he

he figuring things out.

Memories of Mt. Graham

My husband, who is the Bishop of our ward, gave a talk today. He talked about sacred places and told of his memories of his Grandmother Merrill. She died when he was 4 or 5 years old. She lived next door to his home. He would walk over to her house and enter through the kitchen door. She would greet him and then give him a piece of white bread with butter and jam on it. He remembered playing Chinese checkers with her. She always won. He said she would cheat to win because she wanted to be the winner. She had a tradition on Sunday mornings. She invited her sons to come to her house for coffee before they went to church. David's mom told me about that and it was never told with any affection. In time they quit as they each became active in the church.
She loved the Graham Mountains. Her husband (David's Grandpa Merrill ~ who died before David was born) was the first Forest Ranger on the Graham's. So in the summer the family lived up there in tents. They grew a garden and lived off the land. They were up out of the heat in Pima and it was a sweet time for them. They did have tragedy there. A set of twin boys (she was the mother of two sets of twins) died up there as a result of tainted canned milk. So those babies went home from atop the Grahams.

As she got old her heart got bad. She was told to never go up on the Grahams because she would have a heart attack and die. But she went anyway. She asked the whole family to go up to

Columbine for a family reunion. While there amidst her family she did have a heart attack. They got her into David's family car (because it was the newest and fastest) and he remembers seeing them trying to administer some type of CPR and taking off onto the dusty road to get her off the mountain. It was already too late.

This mountain was sacred to her. It was home. She was surrounded by her family. Many times in the scriptures the Lord would take his prophets "high on the mountain" to put them on sacred ground. Now we refer to the Temple as that place...'high on the mountain'.

Vaughn J. Featherstone said "we make sacred covenants in the Temple and we go to our Homes to keep them". Our homes are sacred, too. Through Temple attendance our lives are strengthened and our minds and hearts are opened so we can make our homes sacred. What a great blessing.

Make plans and whatever sacrifice is necessary to go to the Temple. The Lord will bless you and your family.

More Winter Guests

Pete and Brittany and their children and Lee and Aaron came to spend the weekend with us after Christmas. I know that the snow draws my family home. I like that. I like being the Grandma and Grandpa who live where it snows. The grandkids always ask if it has or is snowing at my house. We took the kids up to Sky High to tube. It was crowded but fun.Pete and Megan.
Pete and Melanie.

Father and daughters.

Climbing up the hill wore Mel out...twice.

Base Camp. Aaron, Grandpa, Melanie, Pete and Lee. They are watching Megan. She wanted to go down this one place that had a spot built up to fly off. Brave girl.

This is "Grizz". This is a Kodiak Brown Bear that my dad shot 40 years ago. Pete would play on it as a little boy when it was on Dad's floor. He asked if he could have it. It took these girls a bit to warm up to it but, as you can see, they did. They gave it the nick name " Grizz".

I am not sure if he is smiling or not....

Aunt Lee with girls watching Penelope the movie.

Another attempt at making a snowman. Lee and Aaron were so good to Megan and Melanie. It was starting to get dark when they went out so it was COLD.

Once there was a snowman. I love his lips (pinecones).