as we journey along

Baby Blessing Time

2010-04-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

It was wonderful to gather in Queen Creek with family and friends to help Kinley and Dennis give Jared Willard Letner a name and a blessings. We enjoyed visiting and eating at Kinley and Dennis's home afterward

We Welcome a New Family Member!

2010-02-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

IT HAS BEEN A WILD AND CRAZY WEEK. KINLEY GAVE BIRTH TO A BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY! "JARRED WILLARD LETNER". WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SQUEEZE A LITTLE TIME TO COME SPEND WITH THEM AND HOPEFULLY HELP OUT AND SHARE THEIR JOY. WE COOKED,CUDDLED,CLEANED,GAVE A SUN BATH,TOOK KIDS ON A GEOCACHING HIKE,PLAYED IN SOME DELIGHTFUL MUD,AND GOT LOST TRYING TO FIND OUR WAY BACK! A LOT OF GOOD A GPS DOES ME!) FAMILY IS SUCH A JOY.

Then Pealed the Bells More Loud and Deep. . . .

2009-12-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

God is not dead, nor does He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail. with peace on earth. good will to men." (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
We gathered on Christmas Eve for our annual Tamale Dinner. The Ladies gathered earlier in the week and made the tamales. After dinner the younger set put on costumes and acted out the nativity.Theresa directed and Ryan narrated and everyone sang. It was a lovely chaotic evening. It was a crowded inn!!

2009-11-29T06:43:00.000-08:00

I love Thanksgiving!!! It is all about being grateful and being with family without commercialism or pressures to buy and impress.
We had a Thanksgiving week that began with the visit of Uncle Bob (Poppy's younger brother). November 24th was a birthday celebration for Grandaughter Eden and Uncle Bob.
Cameron, Ashley and Brooklyn came on Wednesday and were joined by Galen, Abel,and Max and Clint, Liz, Alora, Cougar, and Eden on Thursday. We worked it out so that Galen and Abel could go for a bike ride in the early morning, and those that wanted to go to the movie "New Moon" could. Grammy and Poppy joined us and the feast began at 2:30pm?? Everyone helped and Everyone enjoyed.
Grammy and Poppy made it back before dark. The Crandalls joined us and we played games,and put together the puzzle that we brought from Missouri. It is a painting by Jack E. Dawson entitled "If My People" It is a picture of the Saviour mending a very tattered American Flag. It has hidden pictures in the folds of the flag that represent important events and issues facing our country. The promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the theme of the painting. "If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." I love it!

Veterans Day Shoot Out

2009-11-15T08:17:00.000-08:00

Veteran's Day was a beautiful day and Tedd and I decided to spend some time target practicing with our guns at Redington Pass. Morgan Mari and Heather came with us. We were amazed at how many were out shooting! We had to drive a ways to find a spot not occupied by other shooters. We have decided to schedule a shoot out once a month so we can be familiar and proficient with our fire arms.
My only regret that day was that I didn't make it out to the Fountains for their annual salute to the veterans. They always do such a great job of honoring our veterans with displays and flags and speakers. I was very thankful that Galen, Abel, and Max made it and took pictures (of course!) Thanks Galen
I did spend the next afternoon with Grammy and Poppy and they were amazed to see their pictures on Facebook. Thanks again Galen.

2009-11-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Galen, the family photographer, we have lovely pictures of our annual Pomegranate Harvest. The Picking, the cutting and squishing is great fun to do with lots of hands helping. The juice gets drank, turned into lovely jellies for gifts, and my favorite is to brew some into pungent vinegar. We are very thankful to Grammy and Granpa Bailey with vision for planting them in the mid-1900's. They would be so pleased to see us enjoying the harvest. It was their desire that posterity would enjoy their efforts for generations AND WE ARE!!!!

Mari and her friends had fun sorting the small and less perfect pomegranates from the large and supple ones to sale. The first day She and her two enterprising young friends Sarah and Amber Curtis set up at the street around 3 pm to catch those going home from school and work. They had great fun and made about $50. They weren't too happy when they found out that they had to split the money up with the landowners who cared for and paid for the harvest. The second day Mari went out to sell she started out by herself thinking that the profit margine would be greater if she had less ways to divide the profit, but she soon discovered the fun was in doing it together with friends. They brought in $62. Then life got too busy and we thought signs would attract customers, but we only brought in $20, so it was the cute girls not people's desire that sells pomegranates.

Now on to jelly and vinegar making.

My 58th Birthday

2009-11-01T05:46:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful 58th birthday! Tedd and I flew to Branson, MO and stayed in a nice room thanks to Grammy and Poppy's time share. Even though it rained two out of the four days we were there and a lot of the leaves had fallen it was beautiful and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We enjoyed dinner and a show on the Branson Belle showboat, took a trip back in time and re-experienced Beattle mania with the show "Living Legends". We thoroughly enjoyed Silver Dollar City with it's folksy artisans and Ozark blue grass music. We then spent a day and a night with my brother, Garry and sister-in-law, Nancy at their beautiful home on the Lake of the Ozarks. We left wanting to return and bring our family and have determined to plan one family adventure a year and one Tedd and Carol Ann trip a year.

Weakly Ramblings

2009-06-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 21, 2009

I used to write weekly to keep a record of my thoughts and deeds and keep my family connected. Somehow I got out of the habit! Some of my children complained that they did not want to appear in “The Family Letter”. I seemed to regularly overstep my bounds, so forgive me. I will prayerfully commence this record in order to strengthen my brain, (it is growing older and very forgetful) preserve a history, (great civilizations and individuals kept a record) and strengthen the ties that bind us together as a family (I believe those cords are eternal and so we share).
Last night we shared a special spiritual experience. Gary Lohmeir, the father of a great family entered the waters of baptism. His oldest son is Matt and an exceptionally fine young man was very close friends with Cameron and that is how we came to know them. The mother, Jennifer, started coming out to church about the same time that we moved to Tucson. She was quietly faithful. The children joined church. Gary was a rough and tough UPS driver and set in his ways and had ways that he was not willing to give up. He was a good husband and father and there are four beautiful children in the family, Matt, Mandy, Stephen, and Gina who is severely handicapped. We heard that he was going to be baptized Saturday night and were so thrilled! Cameron and Ashley came down from Queen Creek, Matt flew in from Oklahoma where he in training to be a fighter pilot. (He is in our Air Force), and the chapel was filled with people who have loved the Lohmeiers. It was a joyous occasion and a wonderful reunion.
Mari is my last child home and is ready to spread her wings and fly! She finally completed her school studies and is ready to go to girl’s camp and enjoy the rest of the summer.
Morgan is in and out and you have to be alert to catch him to have a conversation. He is doing very well selling home security systems. He plans to go to school and is looking to buy a house
Tedd loves working hard as a Certified Financial Planner. He enjoys where he works. He loves playing tennis 3X a week when he can fit it in and is busy as the executive secretary for our stake of the church. He enjoys mowing the lawn with our new lawn mower. We gave up on borrowing one from Uncle Scott
I am trying to hike 3X a week and enjoy my farm chores. Milking the goats, watching over my flock of chickens and working in the garden which a jungle right now. We have lots of luscious tomatoes. People come and buy eggs and milk products and some produce. It helps pay for the feed
I love where we live. The love the mountains, the desert, the monsoons, and even though I am growing older, more forgetful, and my joints are talking to me I love my life. I love waking up at 5 am and taking off on a hike. I have built a cairn that represents our family and when I make it to that spot I stop and ponder the goodness of God and the blessings of life. I talk to him about each one of you and pray for your welfare
Today is Father’s Day. I am grateful for all earthly fathers who “by divine design . . . preside over their families in love and righteousness and responsibly provide the necessities of life and protect their families” (The Family, a Proclamation to the World)
Thanks to my father Garrett Eugene Blackwell, my father-in-law, Gale Stanley Bell, My sons, Clinton Troy Bell, Cameron Dean Bell, and my sons-in-law, Dennis Letner, Abel Smith, and Ishmael Soto. My undieing love and apreciation for the father of my beautiful children. He is a great husband and has worked so hard to provide so well. Tedd has sown some "AWESOME" seed. I love, appreciate, and pray for you all!!!

First Bi-Annual Work on the Farm Day!!

2008-03-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

We have the wonderful opportunity to live on the Bell Patch, a Grandfathered plot of land, that has the atmosphere of a farm. It was a farm once and now we the descendants of Lowell C Bailey and his wife Mayme Marie have the blessing of being stewards of this oasis in the dessert with its own well.

I have always had the dream of raising as much of our own food as we could and being as self sufficient as we could. We are a long ways away from that dream, but I am committed to making this desirable spot more productive and desirable. It takes a lot of work. We have no hired help and most of our children are raised and raising their own little ones. My dream is to maintain a "farm" that my grandchildren can come to and experience.

The First Presidencyof the Church-of-Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints has stated that, "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness respect, love, compassion, WORK, and whosesome recreational activites."

The Grandchildren helped, enjoyed riding in the truck, and playing together. Galen took lots of great pictures.

We appreciate all those that came and helped. It was great fun for us to watch our children work together. We had a lot of fun. THERE IS ALWAYS MORE TO DO:)
Son in law Dennis Letner was a terrific foreman! He came early and stayed late and we appreciate his leadership and sacrifice of time.

A Girls Dream Come True

2008-01-14T04:43:00.000-08:00

Friends, Scott and Diane Gamble are temporarily housing their horses in our pasture so they can graze. Mari is so crazy about horses that this was a "safe" arrangement to give her more experience and see where this "craze" will go. I don't know how "safe" it is though as she is ready to take off on her own because Tedd is not always around to go with her.
We have used the internet and googled "horse safety" and "riding helmets" (I LOVE THE INTERNET!!!). Mari says. "I don't need to read that. You're just trying to scare me!" We WILL read and study and apply! Sigh.
The paint is "Teton" and the white one is "Myia". Myia is Mari's favorite and oddly enough looks just like the horse that Galen and Liz painted on Mari's bedroom wall.
THANKS SCOTT AND DIANE for the opportunity. They appear to be well and happy and they get along just fine with the goats:)

To Honor Them

2008-01-13T06:14:00.000-08:00

GRAMMY BLACKWELL SETTING THE TABLE WITH HER CHINA FOR CHRISTMAS

I try to call them everyday. I try to see them at least once a week. I know it is getting to be a big effort for them to come out to the Bell Patch and more often than not it is exhausting for them and chaotic with family and friends whirling around. I wish they were closer. My dream was to have them live with me, but it didn't sound like a good dream to them (I can't imagine why! he he), so they are 45 minute drive away.
For Christmas family members contributed funds and photos for a digital photo frame. We shopped and compared on line and purchased a 10" DPF and began the process of collecting and downloading photos from the family and from their own slide collections.
I was hoping to have the project completed by Dec 1 and give them and early Christmas present they could enjoy all through December, but the photo frames we purchased (from Abe's of Maine) had problems and we began the process of shipping them back and waiting for a "better" DPF to arrive. It was made in China, shipped to a company in CA, shipped to MA, shipped to AZ. This DPF has practically been around the world! I now recommend buying local:)

The new and "better" DPF arrived and it seems to work fine, but I immediately notice that the resolution was not as good and I got on the phone and began calling and was going to ship them back and realized that this Christmas gift was going to turn into an anniversary present at best and time is of the essence! So without any further ado we presented the gift on Jan 11. I'm sure it will bring hours of enjoyment and the difficulties aside I thoroughly enjoyed receiving and viewing all the family pictures. I feel closer to my family members for having communicated and worked together on this little project. I appreciate all those who helped and I must says Bonnie and Blackie Blackwell have a bodacious and wonderful family!!!

HUGS AND KISSES

FOR POPPY

My Work and My Glory . . .

2008-01-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

As a mother you spend much of your time trying to teach and train the wonderful souls that God places in your charge. They grow and become such wonderful friends. From day one you learn from your children, but now my adult children are really my teachers. They launch me into the wonderful world of technology. ie text messaging, blogging etc.
Journal keeping has always been something that I have encouraged. At Christmas I pulled out my old journals to find somethings to share that I recorded about my children in years past. I now have discovered another project that I'm going to have to do. I must make an abrigdement of my "large plates" and store them on a thumb drive so that when I'm gone and my children are going through my things they will not discard them thinking they are just some worthless old papers. I have written and kept letters for most of my adult life and put them in notebooks, but this blogging is truly a wonderful way to keep a record and share. Yea!!! What fun. Life is beautiful.

Cookie Time

2008-01-01T18:52:00.000-08:00

2007-12-25T20:07:00.000-08:00

November 24 Eden Elizabeth Bell was born to Clint and Elizabeth Bell. Her siblings Cougar (18 months) and Alora (6 years) welcome her and think that she is pretty cute. Her Aunt Mari age 11 is delighted to have another "doll" to cuddle. " "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:" Psalm 127:3-5. She was a wonderful
Christmas present.

hikin (and bloggin) mama

2007-12-25T16:01:00.000-08:00

Because Elder Ballard has recomended that as members we use online resourses to be heard...

Because I have so much I want to say and share...

I am now a bloggin' mama, as well as a hikin' mama!