Mesa Vacay

Jared and I enjoyed a weekend in Mesa over the July 4th weekend. There had been talk of him deploying, but nothing was confirmed, so we lived it up just in case. Glad we did since he left on 24 July!We stayed at the Mesa Holiday Inn. Jared is often gone for work and stays at Holiday Inns and is thus, a "Preferred Customer". We enjoyed several perk assocuated with this during the trip, in, including a free upgrade to a suite (one was available), free bottles of water upon check-in (instead of $3 dollars a pop for the ones in the wet bar) and complimentary late check-out.The Mesa Holiday Inn boasts "the largest outdoor pool in Mesa!" I really enjoyed the waterfall and the fact that the deck was very open and sunny no matter where you sat. There were many pool chairs and a maid placed fresh towels on the deck every hour or so. We goofed off in the pool playing with "noodles" a little bit each day, and I didn't even get a sunburn! Jared was very vigilant in that department. ;)On Friday evening we enjoyed some subs and found a movie theater to escape to due to the heat. It had to be 110 degrees outside. I am surprised the station wagon didn't die on us. That car is giving us a lot of trouble lately! Anyways, we enjoyed TOY STORY III. I laughed outloud, as did Jared, most of the time. Our most favorite Friday activity was stumbling upon a pottery-making studio called "As You Wish". For about $30 and 2+ hours of entertainment, we were able to decorate/paint pottery. We were able to "rush" the kiln heating time and pick it up in 2 days instead of three days time (we were leaving on Monday morning, so I am glad we found the place on Friday night--we had just enough time to complete our art projects!). Our finished products have allowed for Jared to eat his night time bowl o' cereal in style and me to eat my Ben and Jerry's in coordinating dishware. I even figured out how to label my bowl so everyone knows not it is not theirs and not to eat any of it. I have to admit I am a terrible sharer. Maybe it comes from being one of seven kids?

On Saturday, we went to an arcade at Golf Land that had "Free Play" mode for the morning. What that meant was that we paid $10 per person to play video games without needing quarters for the next 4 hours. I got to level 9 in Pac Man (it finally got too fast for me) and Jared was able to kill lots of bad guys in various shoot-em-up games. Some 16ish looking blond boy challenged me to a game of dance dance revolution and totally smoked me. It was then that I realized I am getting old. That kid was a huge dork, by the way. Wish I snuck a picture of him.By the time Free Play ended, the DQ Blizzard Mobile had FINALLY showed up at Golf Land. Little did Jared know that I planned our entire weekend around the event. Hehehe. Below is a "happy Adri" picture with BOGO free Blizzard coupons.

It was nice to get away from the Vista and enjoy some vacation time together!

100% Food Storage

If you had asked us a year ago about whether or not we had a year’s supply of food (per this counsel received from our Latter Day Saint prophet back in the late 90s), we would have looked at you and laughed—we barely kept more than 3 months of food on the shelf, although J has always told me that I can spend as much money as I want on “food” (he is a big eater!) and “education”. We blame our lack of a bulk food supply on the fact that J is in the military, and living overseas in Japan for three years at the beginning of our marriage didn’t allow us to get a good start on provident living. Ask us today, however, and we can honestly say we have a one year’s supply of food, and other miscellaneous supplies, to boot!

Jared put together 4 shelving units to help store our food in the garage.

Each of those white boxes with the colorful labels holds six #10 cans of various legumes, wheats and dried fruits and vegetables. Each label allows for you to see the nutritional value of an item, and when necessary, cooking directions. An individual label and the date is also conveniently stamped on every single #10 can, just in case you want to take the #10 cans out of the boxes.

One of the things that made it difficult for us to accomplish this food storage undertaking was our physical location in proximity to a cannery—we never lived terribly close to one. Our move to AZ put us within a 75 mile drive of the Tucson Cannery, so it was the first location in which we were able to commit the time necessary to complete the task.

Our ward goes to the cannery once a month, usually the last Saturday of the month, to can food storage orders submitted 3+ months prior to pick up (apparently it takes SLC that long to mail the food supply to us). You can order everything from white flour to pinto or black beans, and even potato pearls. Jared was out of town the last time I went to the cannery, so one of my YW from church, Clairanne, donated a Saturday to me (I helped pay for her trip to girl’s camp this year), and learned the tricks of the trade. Also, not enough members of our stake had submitted orders, so they canceled the trip for the month. Tucson East Stake was kind enough to allow us to join them.

The biggest rules that are important to remember are: 1) Wear close-toed shoes and 2) Wear a hair net and gloves, and change gloves every time the item being canned changes in order to prevent cross-contamination.
First you wipe off the table. Then you start scooping or pouring the item in to the can.

Then you tap and shake to settle the contents.Next you top off with the item and place an oxygen absorber on top (except for sugar!).Finally, you seal the lid and lable the individual can. After packaging, you can clean up.

While we canned, other church members boxed our order for us, so all we had to do was pay for it, verify we had everything, and roll it out to the truck. Very clever way to do it--we probably finished a lot sooner because people were working different angles of the cannery at the same time.

Now that we have our supply, the most important thing to do is ROTATE! We need to use it up and make sure nothing spoils. Judy (Jared's mom) is also purchasing an electric and a manual wheat grinder for me for my birthday, which will make it easier for me to try out new recipes for my very own, hand-milled cream of wheat, egg noodles, and tortillas. It feels good to be prepared and living within our means. I am grateful we decided to get serious about it!

P.S. - I know this post is dated for nearly 6 weeks ago, but I figured I would put a date in that would allow me to look back with accuracy when trying to remember when things happened!

Arizona, the Grand Canyon State

Jared's mom Judy joined us in Arizona last week. During her 10-day visit, we traveled up to the Grand Canyon. It was a 6(ish) hour drive from our home in Sierra Vista, but well worth the trip! The views were spectacular.

Queen of the Night

Our new backyard neighbor, Tom "Monty" Montgomery, and his wife, Elizabeth, introduced themselves to us one evening this past week. It was a scene straight from the set of Home Improvement, where one can only see half of Wilson's head when he is talking to Tim; that is about all we could see of Tom [side note: Earl Hindman, the person who played Wilson's character, was born and raised in Bisbee, Arizona!]. At any rate, Monty introduced himself and quickly nicknamed us his "quiet nieghbors." I've admired his yard long before we were actually neighbors because he has gorgeous, well-maintained landscaping, complete with waterfalls, subtle lights, and various indigenous cacti and plants. After making his introductions and bfore heading in for the evening, he was very kind to share with us a flower from one of his Night-Blooming Cereus plants. The Queen of the Night only opens during ONE midsummer's night every year.

The first picture is from around 9:15 P.M.

The second picture is from 9:00 A.M. the following morning, never to open again!

Apple Annie's Orchard

In July, Jared went to Norfolk, Virginia for three weeks of training. My girlfriend Cadence and her two sons helped me to pass the time by taking me to Apple Annie's Orchard.
We picked fresh tomatoes and purchased various fruit and veggies, to include canteloupe, green beans, yellow and green zucchini, and sweet corn. I also made off with some homemade apple butter, fudge and some peach flavored twizzler-like candies for Jared.


Before we headed for home, we took a fun tractor ride and saw the peach orchards.
Thanks for the great time Cadence!

Peach Cobbler

This past month, the peaches were at their prime--and so were their enemies' tactics. I caught one of the little buggers in action:

The below fruit was damaged as a result of finches pecking at the skin:


As for the peaches that made it into the house unscathed, I used THIS RECIPE to make a delicious cobbler.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

VOILA!:

Ramsey Vista Campground

Jared treated me to a camping trip this last weekend (I think he was feeling guilty since he knew he was leaving for three weeks of TDY in Norfolk, so he caved in to my request!).

We drove up Carr Canyon and hunkered down at the Ramsey Vista Campground. On the drive up, we could see rain clouds in the distance, but we were spared during our entire overnight visit, despite camping during the middle of "monsoon" season.

The roads were really rocky and bumpy...we were so glad we paid to have the wagon aligned LAST weekend...ha. We'lll take the F-150 up next time.



We both pitched in:

I did the loading, and unloading,

Jared set up the tent,

I started/stoked the fire,

Jared gathered firewood,

And we both enjoyed some beans, weanies and S'MORES thanks to our fire. It was somewhat therapeautic to stare into the flames while eating chocolate!!

In the morning we hiked.

Overall, I rate the trip a 9 outta 10; I only say that because I had a rough night sleep due to other (loud) campers and traffic... However, it was well worth the $10.00 we paid for one overnight. Don't forget to haul your own water up and to bring cash or check to self-pay!

If you need want more information about this campground, read HERE.