Happy Holidays 2014
A
review of our year in photos
On Jan 9, we
celebrated Lucienne’s 89th birthday at her new home, Pueblo
Norte Retirement Center.
I had created a binder full of articles on her from her
arrival in the US from Belgium as a warbride in 1946. More
photos at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/5967336139259969281?authkey=CK636frP9KiqZQ.
On Jan 22, I was given a party to thank me for my six years as
the choir’s music librarian. Photos https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/5972164820299345825?authkey=COu2rYa_1_mJYQ.
On Jan 25 we participated in the AZ UU Music Fest at Valley
UU. I got a cute photo of me with Benjie and Connie. More at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/5973013447564066929?authkey=CLqskt3y48G3Zw.
On Feb 1, we
attended the choir retreat, little knowing it would be
Connie’s last.
On Feb 9, I
presented Ginny with her birthday gifts including a family
tree I’d researched for her.
On Feb 10, we showed Gary’s friend Mike my collections.
And on Feb 14, Smoot played golf with his Uncle Ralph.
Later on
Valentine’s Day, we went out with Linda and Gary and
celebrated with decadent chocolate cake. On Feb 15, we went
to the Valentine’s Party at Bill & Joan’s that we’d won at
the auction.
On Feb 22,
we participated in Cabaret. The theme was weather. More pics
from Cabaret at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/5983463734098036609?authkey=CO3Bg_y90Zv_Ew. On Feb 25 we cycled
and met Julie and Marshal for lunch. Mar 2, Smoot was the
chair of the Stewardship Comm along with Jan, Brian, Diana and
Rev Susan. (Not pictured Carey and Heidi P)
It took
until Mar 6 for my Christmas gift Jedi tunic to arrive. The
lightsaber had been a Christmas gift too. With Susan’s robe,
my outfit was complete! On Mar 7, we joined Brad and Carolyn
at the ASU future expo. On Mar 8, we hosted a potluck with
Charles & Lindo and Linda & Gary. More pics at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/5988618456685977457?authkey=CJfvzo7KsJj1eQ.
On Mar 11,
Marti, Matt, Carey and Audrey came to visit. Marti joined us
at UUCP for a service and later we all ate at a sushi
restaurant. More pics from their visit at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/5989631196397508321?authkey=CJi7se7z5br1LQ.
On Mar 12 we attended the memorial service for Bob Rusconi at
Pueblo Norte. I read the eulogy that I had written and that
Lucienne’s cousin Darryl had adapted and read at Bob’s service
at Arlington Cemetery in DC.
On Mar 14,
Lilly, my foster gave birth to three kittens that I named
Aster, Dahlia and Dandy (for dandelion). This was my second
experience having a pregnant cat and then raising her kittens.
I had gotten her on Feb 14. More pics at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/5980000680807590561?authkey=CMy356Owqd2xJQ.
On Mar 15, we went to the UUCP picnic and on Mar 16, we went
to the UUF party at Duke & Susan’s to launch the UUCP
legacy program.
On Mar 20,
we showed Darryl our place then ate at the sushi restaurant
again. More pics at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/5993292314806224129?authkey=CMzeu5DX7ucK. On Mar 30, I’d set
up my historical posters on the church building for the Blaine
Drake tour. Smoot showed the model of our planned renovation
of Drake’s design. Dale took our picture on Easter, April 20.
We were both in festive red.
On April 29,
Maria, Sam, Michael and we moved special furniture from
Lucienne’s house to her room to make it more homey. On April
30 we got to see the new carpeting at church. On Free Comic
Book Day, May 3, I wore my Jedi outfit and met a surprisingly
friendly Sith at the Pop Culture Museum with Paula.
We
celebrated Memorial Day on May 26 with a tasty potluck at
Linda & Gary’s with Charles & Lindo. On May 28, the
Altos were honored at the Music Appreciation party.
Smoot and
the lady Tenors at the party. Jerry and Bill were missing. The
choir music librarians were honored, me as outgoing, Emily as
incoming. We were all surprised and dismayed when Connie, our
choir director since 1997, announced she was resigning. Right,
Connie and her impressive choir on Jun 1.
Richard and
Loretta Nixon were in the Valley for a family wedding and came
by on June 2 to visit with us. After lunch, Loretta and I
spent all afternoon talking about and sharing family history.
June 5-8, Smoot, Paula and I went to the Phoenix Comic Con. We
got to see Richard Dean Anderson, John Rhys-Davies, Jim
Butcher, Stan Lee, Danny Glover among other famous folk. More
Con pics at
https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/6022996391368562353?authkey=CMz-xvfzxJ7izAE.
On June 7,
Bill & Joan hosted the After Cabaret party that was also a
going-away for Connie. Smoot immediately found Brad to chat
with. Smoot, Paula and I came from Comic Con so I was still in
my Jedi outfit but had to take my robe off because it was too
warm. More party pics at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/6022967998321969969?authkey=COuAqaPVo-KxMg.
We
celebrated Smoot’s birthday early with the Leungs on June 8.
On June 14 we celebrated Frank and Beverly’s 50th anniversary
with Dan and Sonnie and Smoot’s 64th on June 20
On July 3,
we went to and cooked at the barbecue at UUCP. On July 4th we
celebrated the holiday by being treated to lunch by Linda and
Gary who had just returned from their month in St. Maarten.
(We had watered their plants while they were gone.) Then later
that afternoon, we celebrated again with milkshakes with
Julie, Marshal, Bill and Dean. (I had flags for everyone.)
We had two
big trips in July. July 16-21 we attended our first UU
Musicians Network conference in San Diego. UUCP had the
largest delegation of any congregation. It was a fun and
interesting experience, but the organization is clearly and
appropriately really aimed at music professionals. We missed
having Connie with us. More pics at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/6037394048103694849?authkey=CJOd8qixwKaYGQ.
Our second
trip was to the East Coast the next week, July 23-29 .
Madeline & Billy were celebrating their 70th birthdays and
50th anniversary so the family gathered. We took advantage of
the occasion and first visited Rick & Marilyn in Virginia
Beach, VA. Then we drove to Federalsburg, MD for the three
days of 70/50 celebrating. Almost all of my immediate family
were there (missing Rusty and Steve) and we got to meet a
great niece and nephew we’d not yet met. I’d brought toys and
gave Celia a stuffed AZ cactus.
We gave
Benji a stuffed AZ coyote. He was so cute. He obviously didn’t
know who these people were talking to him but greeted Great
Uncle Smoot with great formality while Denise and Ben
explained who we were. I had brought plastic Red-eared slider
turtles for Ava and Nate. They commemorated the visit Bev and
the kids had made to our house in 2007 when they seemed so
fascinated by my turtles. Unfortunately they didn’t remember
the visit but they were sweet to take the turtles anyway.
The family
gathered for a picture at the 70/50 barbecue on Friday night.
Cousin Barbara had flown from CA to be with us. It was almost
a miracle that the celebration took place at all. On July 2,
Becca had shared the news that Billy had had a major heart
attack and was in the hospital. He made an amazing recovery
and was able to attend all the events and even gave us a tour
of his town and Mayor’s office. Right, the three sisters. More
photos at
https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/6040176454629894689?authkey=CKqkjrXJr_7HsAE.
On July 27, we
drove from Federalsburg to Annandale, VA to visit Suzanne and
Rob. Over the week we got to see all our siblings. We flew
back on July 29 with what was supposed to be a short stopover
in Chicago but ended up having a five hour wait because of
mechanical problems, a frustrating way to end a fun trip. More
pics at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/6039431594731777217?authkey=COOdnILw69b_cw.
We had fostered a big orange kitty in June and Smoot said if
he wasn’t adopted by the time we got back from our trips, we
would take him. He wasn’t so on July 31 we added Jack to our
furry family through Paw Placement, the animal rescue group I
volunteer with.
We celebrated
our 41st anniversary at the Talking Stick Casino buffet. This
was much lower-key than our 40th celebration and trip. We had
lunch with Ellie and Bob on Aug 25, the day before my
birthday. Ellie had a cake for me. My actual birthday was also
election day. I always take a bowl of candy for the workers
and they let me make a big deal out of depositing my mail-in
ballot in the special box.
As we were
leaving the polling place, we ran into our (sadly) former
neighbors, Marilyn and Maurice.
As usual, I ate my way through my b’day with a freebie
breakfast at Denny’s, then a free hamburger and sundae at Red
Robin and finally cake and ice cream at home.
On Aug 30, we
had a joint birthday celebration for me and Susan at the
indoor glow-in-the-dark putt-putt golf. As we expected, Smoot
did the best with five holes-in-one. But I was next with four
which included the hard loop-the-loop hole. Then we went to
lunch. Susan enjoyed the silly card I’d made for her and we
enjoyed another tasty meal.
On Sept 5 we
had lunch with Richard and Connie. Smoot got to wear Richard’s
hat! On Sept 6 there was a Welcome Back to Choir party at Duke
& Susan’s. The August birthday folks, me, Diana, Peter and
Duke celebrated with a cake.
The choir for
the water ceremony on Sept 7. Benjie is now our choir director
and Mary our accompanist. Our sung request for rain the
previous day was answered by flooding on Sept 8!
On Sept 13,
Benjie led his first choir retreat where we sang through the
music we’d perform the rest of the year. On Sept 20 we
helped celebrate Brian’s 50th.
On Sept 25,
Darryl was back in town and we treated him to dinner at
Flemings. On Sept 28, we celebrated Katherine’s birthday. On Oct 4, we went
to the Armenian Festival and saw this lady dressed in
traditional attire.
That afternoon
we joined a group of choir folks to visit Connie after the
death of her father in Ohio. On Oct 10, we got to hear Benjie
and his Bad Cactus Band at the Botanical Gardens. On Oct 11,
our cats, Rocky, Gheer and Jack, posed for a photo together.
We added a beautiful new leaf to the family tree with Greta Love Ochsner was born on Nov 16. Her big sister, Celia was delighted as were her parents, Becca and Chad. On Nov 23, we went to see the Walking With Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular. It was amazing how life-like the dinosaurs were. More photos and short videos at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/6085034724554564609?authkey=CKDX6Kuoqq6oiAE. We celebrated Thanksgiving at the UUCP Potluck. We broke the record for high temperatures; it was 87 degrees that day. More photos at https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/6086567080290724641?authkey=CJLs9qj_5v-EugE. The first week of Dec, Smoot went to Austin for business and on Dec 2 went to a basketball game with Alfred. According to Alfred the photo above right shows from right to left, "a Rogues' Gallery of Austin politicos: Bill Emory, Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Mark McCulloch, and Karl-Thomas Musselman."
On Dec 5, we
went to the Democratic District 23 holiday party. Then on Dec
6, we did our Angel Tree shopping with the Leungs. Their
exchange student, Daniel, and Susan’s mom, Fran were also with
us. Then we went to the Oink restaurant for lunch and a
belated celebration of Jimmy’s birthday. Birding in Central
Park was the theme.
On Dec 7, we
sang at the service then took part in the Bonanza themed
auction at UUCP, dressed in appropriate cowboy attire. We had
lunch with our Sunday Lunch Bunch, sadly minus Kristina,
That evening
we went to a holiday party at Jane’s with our new neighbors,
Bob and Lee. On Dec 12, we went to the holiday concert of the
Valley Women’s Ensemble. Connie is their pianist. Afterward we
went out for pie and hot chocolate with Connie, Richard,
Ellie, Sandy T, Sandy W, and Don.
On Dec 13, we
went caroling with other folks from UUCP. We had our picture
taken with Lucienne. More caroling photos at
https://plus.google.com/photos/105848056501334164784/albums/6092524478847795857?authkey=COOP3Zqvpfa7lQE.
We attended both services on Christmas eve and sang at the
second, then had our picture taken.
Our Pets and Fosters 2014
The pets we’ve
had the longest are Mr Turtle and Lady Turtle, Red-eared
slider turtles. We got him in 1995 so he’ll be 20 in 2015.
We’ve had her since 1998. They’ve produced many offspring. The photo above
right shows four females, Lady Turtle, center, and her
daughters, Bimbo, Bonsai and Teena. They live in a small pond
outdoors.
We currently have six baby RES
turtles in our bathtub. We adopted Cici, our Cockatiel in 2001
from one of Smoot’s work colleagues who was moving out of
state.
We adopted
black Bagheera, or Gheer, in Sept 2008, orange and white Rocky
in 2011 and big orange Jack in July 2014, all rescues. Our
fish tank, decorated for the holidays, is now filled with
Mollies and two Catfish.
Our Foster Cats in 2014
Snookums/Kia; Lilly and her kittens;
Me with the kittens on their way to Petsmart
I foster cats
for Paw Placement Animal Rescue in Scottsdale and have since
2010. On Dec 21, 2013 we got a foster kitten who was rescued
from euthanasia at the Humane Society. Smoot started calling
her Snookums but she was later named Kia. She was with us in
Jan 2014 and stayed with us until on Feb 1 when she went to
the Paw Placement adoption center at the Petsmart at 90th and
Shea in Scottsdale. On Feb 10, I got pregnant Lilly. On Mar 14
she had three kittens. Since she was named for a flower I
named the kittens for flowers too – Aster, black Dahlia and
boy Dandy (short for dandelion). Lilly went to Petsmart on May 11 and the
kittens on May 24.
Suzette and Jack
On Mar 12,
while Lilly was in the bathroom awaiting her babies, I got
Suzette. She was sick and needed time to be medicated and
heal. I took her back to Petsmart on Mar 19. On May 7, I got
Jack. His owner had died in her 40s and had left money to PP
to find homes for her 11 cats, one of whom was Jack. Room
opened up at the center and I took him to Petsmart on Tues Jun
5. He went into a short term foster with a man who comes to
the Valley every year and fosters a cat. Seemingly he stayed
under the bed the whole time. The man left and Jack went back
to Petsmart and wasn't happy in a condo. We decided to adopt
him and on July 31, I picked him up from the center and he was
ours, a failed foster!
Jack’s calendar page. T-bone on the
bird cage. The golf kittens – Bogey, Putter and Divot.
Jack made the Paw Placement 2015 calendar. On June 5, we got T-bone. He had an URI and needed medical leave from the center. He was a sweet black kitten about 4 months old. He got a full round of medicine but then collapsed and had to go to the vet who thought he had hurt his leg. He got another round of a different antibiotic and in a couple of days was back to his bouncing off the wall self. He went back to Petsmart on June 28. Right after bringing T-bone home I was asked if I could take a set of kittens that had been captured at a golf course. I ended up getting them the same day I got T-bone, June 5th. I decided to give them golf names since they were found on a course. The feisty male was named Bogey but was also known as Hellcat! The sweetest and most adventurous was a gray male we named Putter, center in the photo above. The third was a gray/brown tabby female we named Divot. I took them to Petsmart on July 10.
Sugar & Spice and Gizmo & Tigger. Photos by Laura Flannigan from the PP website
On Aug 1, I got four adult cats, sadly all returns by previous adopters - Sugar & Spice and Gizmo & Tigger. On Aug 18, I took Gizmo, Tigger and Sugar back to Petsmart for facetime. On Aug 23, I took Spice in and there was an older lady there ready to adopt her and Sugar.
Tessa looking scary and Tessa looking sweet. Right, Boo from the PP website.
On Aug 23, the same day I took Spice in to
the center, I got Tessa. She's a pretty black cat with a white
spot on her chest. She was very snarly and hissy, but slowly got
slightly more friendly. She is still with us and may be for a
while. I don’t know how adoptable she is. Smoot calls her the
museum cat – look but don’t touch! On Sept 16, I picked up Boo
from the center. He had an URI and needed medicine and foster
time to recover. I took him back to the center on Sept 25.
Tamalina and Trina
That
same day, Sept 25, I got a call that a cat needed to be picked
up from the Four Peaks vet. Her owner had died and the woman’s
family had thrown her two cats outside to fend for themselves.
A neighbor fed them until one, the male got hurt. She
contacted Paw Placement and we rescued the cats. Sadly, the
male had to be put down, but the female, Tamalina needed to be
fostered. I picked her up on Sept 30 and had her until Nov 29.
On Oct 28, I went with Tommie to pick up the four cats that
church members Johanna and Deb were surrendering. Trina, a
Siamese mix went to the center on Nov 8 and ended up in the
2015 PP calendar.
Birdie, Gypsy and Star
The other ‘Church Cats’ are Birdie, a sweet female who chirps like a bird; Gypsy, another female so ugly she’s cute; and Star a big, black and white bruiser boy. They will be with us for a while. Birdie will probably be the next foster to go to the center because she’s so pretty and adoptable.
I’ve
had 22 foster cats during 2014. Almost all have been adopted
except the ones we still have at home and Divot, Gizmo and
Tigger. I hope they will all find forever homes in the new
year.