How's THAT for customer service?

When I went home to D.C. for graduation, I made sure to pack my super sweet new polka dot umbrella. On the first day I was there, I visited my girlfriend in Occoquan and I was thrilled to use it for the very first time (obviously we don't get my rain here in AZ). However, I was not able to use it before I dropped it on the ground as I was fumbling with taking off the cover. As soon as I went to extend it, I realized that I had bent the frame when it was dropped. Total bummer!! And I was iritated until I remembered that ISOtoner umbrellas have a lifetime warranty. I shoved it into my luggage and tried my luck at getting it fixed instead of having to purchase another umbrella. I filled out the warranty form that came with it when I purchased it and obediently tucked a $5.00 check into the envelope for "shipping/handling" fees. Within a week, I received this letter and was able to void the check out in my checkbook: And within a week, I received this new umbrella via UPS:

Way to go ISOtoner! I am a customer for life!

Movies at the Park

Sierra Vista does Movies in the Park each summer starting in May (kiddos are out of school here starting the first week of May). Cox Communications sets up a big projector screen and plays the movie in the Veteran's Park when it gets dark. One weekend in June, Jared and I met up with some friends from the OJAG and watched "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". It is fun because it is always good people-watching and we can bring whatever we want to eat and don't have to sneak it in through our purses! :) We ordered Papa Johns.

My Lover

Jared, Adri, Tiffany, Patrick Jared and Greg Greg, Kristin and BP

summertime sewing

When I visited D.C. this past month, I had the opportunity to visit with my Grandpa Norm Wheeler and my Grandma Louise Wheeler, my mother's parents who live in Bally, PA.

Grandma is a true artist, venturing into all forms of craftiness, including knitting, rug hooking, crocheting, painting, sewing, drawing, jewelry making, needlecraft, etc. I received some retro fabric from her collection and I decided to put some of it to use by making a clothespin holder for the clothesline I hung this week out in our backyard. I love the holder! Eco-friendly (by saving energy) and sweet vintage retro.This was my first experience working with bias tape. I think I will try it again!

Who says life can't be interesting without kids?

On Monday night I went to bed feeling completely satisfied with life, knowing I had completed a true deep cleaning, transforming the entire house by Murphy Oil soaping the kitchen cabinets and dining room chairs, washing and putting away all the dishes, dusting the plantation shutters and wooden ceiling fans, vacuuming the carpets, cleaning out the kitty litter boxes, doing laundry, scrubbing toilets, and sweeping and mopping the floors. Apparently the kitty litter box wasn't clean enough, because when I walked in to my nice, clean kitchen the following morning, I found this laying in the middle of the floor:

Sigh. I have furbabies, after all.

GWU Graduation

Many friends and family already know that I completed my Master's Degree in Paralegal Studies back in December. After some encouragement from Jared, I took the opportunity to go home and participate in commencement exercises on May 15th and 16th, and visit with family and friends in the Northern Virginia area. Michelle Obama was the key note speaker for GWU's graduation on the National Mall.
Several of my colleagues and I were inducted into Lambda Epsilon Chi, the National Paralegal Honor Society, for graduating in the top 10% of our class and with a 3.9 0r higher (I had a 4.0!). The hard work paid off--I was provided a special honor chord to wear during graduation, and a framed accomplishment certificate along with a lapel pin. :)

It was nice to put faces with names and meet several of my online classmates in person, including my girlfriend Lina, who was kind enough to let me borrow two extra graduation tickets for my rather large immediate family. It turns out that she lives in Virginia Beach, and her daughter goes to high school with my sister, at my old alma mater, Princess Anne. Small world.

During my trip to VA, I was also able to meet my new nephew, Micah Conner Bussey, for the first time. He is a cutie! Poor baby has a hernia and is scheduled for surgery on June 7th; I am sure it will make him feel better, and help him to be less fussy for my sister. He sure does look like a "Bussey" here.

It feels great to be DONE with school...at least for a little while!

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!

Taking a break

I am taking a break from a few things in an effort to find peace, balance and simplicity. Plus, living in the Vista, do I really have anything THAT exciting to post? Let's be real: it has been a struggle over the last 3 months to find anything good to post. So, au revoir for now.