The joys of living in Laveen, Arizona

Livinig in Laveen means living around dairy farms and miles of crops. Driving up to our house we have a mile of crops on our street, and we always wonder - what's growing there? More than likely it is probabaly corn. However, as of two weeks ago, we no longer have to wonder whats growing on a section of that mile - we are the ones planting the seeds. That's right folks, Jason and I have become farmers!!!

OK... so that's not totally true. Our ward, the Gila River Ward, has borrowed some land to make a ward garden. Each family was assigned to bring a packet of seeds, and to help water the garden. Last Saturday, I had the grueling tasks of watering the garden. I say grueling, because it was. We had to wait for the irrigation water to flow into the back yard, flood the grass, and eventually flow into the section of our garden. As the water is flowing you have to create and break dams throughout the garden so the water flows down each row. Some rows filled with water nicely, while other needed to be dug deeper.



Our ward decided to do this in preparation for our ward Christmas party. We planted: corn, zucchini, green beans, carrots, and a couple other things I can't remember. Everything should be ready to harvest the first of December - just in time for the christmas party. The garden is new to the ward, so we will have to see what comes from it.




In addition to the garden, we have a ward pig!!! They told us we can't name him, so I call him bacon. Each family signs up to take him scraps of food, gives him water, and makes his home nice and muddy. Along with the veggies in our garden, "Bacon" will be part of our ward feast too. I know - I know, makes me a little sad and sick as well, but I guess that is the circle of life. I'm just not sure if I will be eating pork that night.










On our ward farm we also have a unigoat (he's missing his other horn), chickens, two other pigs and some cows. The owner of the property takes care of these animals, we just get to look at them.

Ragnar - ANYONE?

Calling all runners who would like to run a portion of 182 miles. A course from Wickenburg to Mesa. The relay race is Feb. 27-28. Jason and I think this would be a awesome experience and need 10 more people who are willing to run the ragnar.

What a HABOOB!!!

It might be another reference to weather, but hey - it's crazy to see and be in the middle of. A haboob, for those of you who don't know, is basically a massive dirt/sand storm. They are lovely, especially when you walk outside for a 1/10th of a second and your eyes fill with sand. I guess it is all part of living in Arizona during the monsoon season.

The first picture shows it rolling in, and the second is in the middle of it. Normally, they sky is bright blue with maybe one or two puffy white clouds.

Rainy Days and Painter Bob

As you can read from our blog entry title, things are a little boring around here. However, if you consider monsoonal rain and hail exciting - you're in for a treat. It seems the 2008 Monsoon season has been more active this year than in years past. I can't remember a time when I have seen so much rain. The monsoons, although sometimes scary, are fun to watch and always refreshing. It's not every day Phoenix sees hail - so of course I had to document it. The video I took is the beginning of the storm. My camera was getting to wet to record any more.


The second part of my 'oh so boring' blog entry is Painter Bob. I have to give a big shout out to painter Bob. Jason and I were tired of our hospital white walls and we really didn't want to paint it ourselves, so we asked Bob. He came highly recommended by Staci and Bacho. Bob did an amazing job, he was cheap, and he was fast. We didn't go crazy with the color - just a nice, neutral oatmeal throughout the house. I have ideas of how to spice it up later.

Is anyone else having this problem

As you can see my background has changed. I was trying to update it and it deleted all my links and now I can't edit my page to add them back. I am trying to figure it out, but if anyone has experienced this or knows how to fix it, let me know. Otherwise the blog will be in construction mode a little while.

Shamu & Tatsu

Living in Arizona we enjoy many things. One of those things, which is a favorite is living so close to San Diego. We packed up the car Thursday and headed out for a weekend full of birthday wishes, Shamu and Tatsu.

Friday was spent at Sea World. I love this place and having family with us, makes it even better. We first started off the day wishing Staci a happy ??st birthday. Happy Birthday Stac - you don't look a day over 21. After singing and blowing out candles we headed to Sea World where we watched the shows, had a churro, petted the stingrays and got drenched on the ride - adventure to Atlantis. The day was so much fun and we hope to do it again really soon.

Saturday was a day I have been looking forward to for months. Jason, Colby and myself headed to Six Flags. I love amusement parks and going on roller coasters. Last year my family went to six flags in October and we saw a ride called Tatsu. It was not opened at that time, but it looked awesome. This ride has you lay on your stomach and do crazy flips at crazy speeds. I wanted to get the most out of our day at Six Flags, so we all bought "flash passes" which allows you to cut to the front of the line. Seriously.... it's the only way to go to an amusement park. We only spent 5 hours at six flags, went on 10 rides and probably waited a total of 45 minutes. The day was so fun and being with Colby and Jason made it much more enjoyable.

Thank you Kipps and Vegas for the hospitalitiy and making this weekend so much fun. We love getting together and having 'San Diego' fun.

Golfing in 110 degrees - we must be crazy

You are probably thinking why did you go golfing when it was 110 degrees? Simple - we had free passes that were about to expire. I haven't been golfing in about 7 years - or should I say since Jason dumped me out of the cart. For some strange reason - I have been wanting to go golfing and since we had passes - I thought, why not. I lost too many balls to count, I picked up my ball and set it where I wanted it to be and basically just drove the cart, but it was still fun. Our cart was full of ice water so the temp - wasn't that bad, we just had to wring our clothes out when we got home.

D-Backs V. Cubs

Oh.... take me out to the ballgame. I love going to baseball games. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I love just sitting in the stadium, watching people, the players, and of course getting some yummy stadium treat.

A Idaho / Utah weekend

The third weekend in July is always reserved for the Ellis Family reunion. Each year it is held in Blackfoot Idaho and each year it is so much fun to see everyone, catch up, and keep the traditions that I remember as a kid. Every year there will most likely be omlets in a baggie, chicken in a barrel, fish fry, going to the rapids, arts n' crafts, and relaxing. This year we had the pleasure of dutch oven - which is always so delicious, and the duck race in Uncle Ron's canal. Living in Arizona has made it a little harder to get to the reunion, but we have made it the past 2 years and will make every effort to attend every year.

My grandpa is the best at making things. I remember always receiving some new, hand made, wooden toy as a kid. One night all of the cousins were remembering what we got from grandpa when we were little - I couldn't help but smile when I thought about how talented my Grandpa is. Last year was the first I saw this ferris wheel, that my grandpa made - I couldn't believe how awesome it was. The little cousins love riding in it. Bodie got his first ride this year. While I was up there my grandpa told me I needed to take a house for my kids - a house for every child I thought I would have. Traveling by airplane made it tricky - so I just took one this year.

Along with my Grandpa, my Grandma is amazing. As a child we all received a hand made blanket. I remeber having mine everywhere. My grandma kept telling me to take a blanket - remeber to take a blanket. I felt bad taking one, because I don't have any kids yet - but I took two anyway. My mom, Staci and I looked at every blanket - going back and forth about which one we liked. It's so hard to choose when you don't know what you are going to have - a little boy or girl. After about an hour of looking through the blankets - we all picked our favorites.

While I was up in Idaho, Jason was in Salt Lake hanging out with his family and playing golf. It is always so good to go back to SLC. I drove back from Idaho Saturday night - and wondered what we could do. I really wanted to go up the canyon and make smores - but it was already closed for the night. Because the canyon was already closed, we decided to find the 'U' on the mountain. We spent about an hour taking silly pictures, but it was a lot of fun. Brandon and Lisa joined us on our little outing.

Rockin out w/ Rockband

I'm not sure how many of you have played Rockband, but it is so much fun. The game includes a guitar, drum set and a mic. Everyone plays at the same time, and if you suck - your part gets out. We had my mom, dad, bacho, staci and bodie come over for a little get together. Jason and I decided to try something new for dinner, so we made tinfoil dinners in the back yard. I thought they were yummy...hopefully everyone else did to. Towards the end of the night we played Rockband. Everyone took turns playing - even Bodie. The daring people took turns on the mic. Let me just say.... none of us will be making an album any time soon. Thanks Andersen's and

Vega's for a fun night.