Busy May-June Bugs :)

Hello family and friends! It's time for the Tucson Hall Update!

I've recently taken to canning and in May and June I did quite a bit. I canned probably 75% of what you see here just in the end of May beginning of June. This coming weekend I will be adding strawberry jam, salsa and chicken to my collection. I'm already wanting to break into all this stuff and start experimenting! I've canned tortilla flour, 15 bean soup, dried fruit, dry milk, dried carrots, pancake mix, spaghetti, macaroni, and the list goes on! I really enjoy doing this and I'm really lucky to have found some active canning sisters here in my ward because I have no idea what I'm doing. Eventually I plan to have a system down but for now I'm kind of canning whatever I can. I think I'm three months with these cans and stuff that is in my pantry already.




Also at the end of may James and I acquired 4 bookcases, a small nightstand and 3 barstools from a girl in our ward that is moving to Rhode Island. We were pretty excited. They look nice and she actually threw them in for free on top of the shelves! So we got quite a bit for a low price.

We had a fun date night the other night. We went camping in our living room! We bought a 4-man tent at WalMart and also a tarp to go under it. We also then decided to eat hotdogs and smores to make it feel more real. We made the hotdogs and smores over the stove and then watched a movie through our tent door :) So, not the truest camping experience but still fun nonetheless :) (sorry the pictures are kind of pixely - they're from my phone)

(ready for my close up)

Delicious!

In more recent family news, my little brother got his mission call!!! He will be going to the Kennewick Washington mission. He reports to the MTC on August 4th 2010. He's very excited. James took him shopping for mission stuff last saturday. He helped him pick out slacks, p-day stuff and shoes. I can't wait for him to have this experience. It will be one of the best of his life!

Got the call!!

Where's he goin?!?

Kennewick Washington!

Mom got him his flag just like Jason and I :)

Last weekend (not yesterday), we went with Jordan to an arena football game with the AZ Rattlers and the OK City Yard Dawgs. I was excited because it was OK City :) It was a very interesting way to watch football. James said it seems fairly unorganized, like back yard football. It's not as formal as college or pro football. I agree. It was like watching back yard football. It was also really loud :) When AZ scored a touch down a cannon was shot off making your heart jump out your chest, your eardrums burst and your whole body, not to mention your seat, vibrate. But...Jordan did get us some really good seats and it was a fun experience to have.

After 7 months living in this house, we finally hung up pictures on our wall! We decided to try out vinyl lettering on our wall too. I have a friend down here that does it herself (she has a machine) and so I asked her to make us one. I found a quote that I like and it fit perfectly! I laughed because I told her that I feel like I'm a real Mormon now because I have vinyl lettering on my wall (It's REAL big down here with the sisters).

This is the wall hanging that my mom made me when I was at BYU. I told her I would hang it in my home when I was married. And so I did! This is in the loft right at the top of the stairs.

The crowning jewel of our wall hangings is the following picture. We've been looking for this picture for about 3-4 months now. We saw it in the little LDS store that was here in Tucson a few months back. But then the store closed and we've been hard pressed to find another picture that we like. Well, while visiting my family last weekend, James found this one at the Deseret Book! I wasn't with him so he drove all the way home (my parent's home where we were staying, not Tucson :) ), came and got me, and then drove all the way back! He was really excited about it. This is the picture that we saw back in the little store and we were very excited to see it again. It doesn't look very big in the picture but it is quite large. It's 30"x 33". This is what you see when you walk in from the front door. That was James' and I's wish for anyone that walked through our front door was to first see the Savior. We're very pleased :)

In other news...

James and I spoke at Young Women's camp this past Wednesday. They were focusing on Temples and so they had 5 speakers come and talk with them. The first was a YCL from camp, then next was a Sister RM. She spoke on how the YWs values and theme helped her prepare for the temple and on her mission. The next speaker was a young single adult sister that was endowed and what the temple meant to her. Then I spoke, and james too, on preparing now for a temple marriage. It was a really great meeting and really well put together. The girls were very well behaved and very attentive. I think that James was the highlight of the evening because he made the girls laugh. When he got up to speak he says, with a straight face, "Well, as you might guess, I'm here to talk about how Young Women's helped me become the person that I am today." The girls laughed so hard :) After the meeting they were so sweet and came and told all the speakers what a great job they'd done. The leaders said that so many girls took notes and there were even a few non-member girls attending that were touched. It was a sweet experience and James and I were happy to have gone.

We also had stake conference today and yesterday. Elder Joseph Sitati of the 1st Quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us. That man is amazing. His faith is so simple! He was asked to share some of the ways that his testimony was shaped and he answered by saying that when he made a decision to do something, that was it and there was no looking back. When he was investigating the church in 1986 he did everything he needed to do to gain a testimony simply because he wanted to know the truth. He read the Book of Mormon to truly read it and not prove it false. He obeyed the prophets because that is what you do - you obey the prophet and don't question it. I wish I could convey the words and spirit that he did because it was just a ... wow feeling. And it's not like WOW! It's just a simple...wow. I really enjoyed his talks and James and I are now motivated and determined to live by the same simple faith.