Riley and Celesta

23 Nov 2013: Newlyweds Riley and Celesta Wakefield

emerge from the Mesa Arizona Temple

Our family enjoyed a weekend trip to the Valley to celebrate yesterday's wedding of my niece Celesta and her beloved Riley. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the very happy couple.

Celesta's mom (my sister Karla) takes care of some readjustments

before the official photographer gets started.

Celesta enjoys some tomfoolery with the groomsmen on the temple grounds.

After 2 days of constant rain, those grounds were very soggy!

The bridesmaids are dazzled by Celesta's wedding ring bling.

The bridesmaids gaze adoringly upon the studly groom, Riley!

Our family has its photogenic moment with the bride and groom:

Dylan, Aunt Mary (me!), Riley, Celesta, Sarah, and Chris.

Jacob wasn't able to join us due to his heavy double-work schedule.

These shots were taken just before the reception started.

The bride and groom with Celesta's entire family:

Brian (dad), Mariah, Jeremy, Brianna, Julien, Addison,

Riley, Celesta, Gabrielle, Joshua, Karla (mom), Genevieve, and Elyssa.

Celesta with all 6 of her sisters:

Mariah, Brianna, Addison, Celesta, Gabby, Genevieve, and Elyssa.

Celesta with all 3 of her brothers:

Julien, Josh, Celesta, and Jeremy.

The bride and groom escape amid a sea of bubbles and well-wishes.

They are heading to a 4-day honeymoon in Sedona, Arizona.

 

It was a beautiful wedding and a fun reception. I'm so glad we got to be there to celebrate with Riley and Celesta and spend time with family and friends. We had an amazing time!

Belated Birthdays

I've been a horrible blogger in 2013! I have totally neglected the birthdays of my children, and so I will now rectify my oversights, beginning with the most recent first:

26 Oct 2013: Sarah after her concert on the night before her birthday

 

SARAH: Oct 27th

 

The night before Sarah's 24th birthday she had a performance with White Mountain Symphony Orchestra. Her brother Jacob decided to surprise her by decorating her car with ballons and birthday wishes, so he sneaked out right after the concert while Dylan, Chris, Chris's parents, and I stalled her inside as long as we could.

 

26 Oct 2013: Sarah gets a surprise after the concert

Sarah was so pleased with Jacob's surprise. I love that my children like to do nice things for each other. I have often been the recipient of their surprises, as well. I am so blessed!

26 Oct 2013: Sarah takes a bow at the end of the concert.

She is just left of the music stand in the center.

For her actual birthday the next day, we had a family dinner with her favorite foods, including Navopache Chicken Salad (with chicken, cabbage, slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, olive oil, red wine vinegar...) Then she opened her presents before we sang happy birthday and enjoyed the German chocolate birthday cake Jacob prepared for her.

27 Oct 2013: Sarah and her birthday cake

1 July 2013: Dylan holds his birthday card from his sister

DYLAN: July 1st

Dylan invited his friend Mary to join us for a small family party on his 16th birthday. First, he enjoyed one of his favorite meals: spaghetti and meatballs with a large side of garlic bread.

1 July 2013: Dylan and his friend Mary as he opens his gifts

After dinner Dylan opened his presents. There weren't many of us there: just Dylan, Mary, Sarah, Chris, and Mom (me) since Jacob was still in California. But we were enthusiastically cheering Dylan on as he checked out his gifts!

1 July 2013: Dylan with his birthday ice cream cake

We then enjoyed the birthday cake Dylan had requested: an Oreo ice cream cake. With more ice cream on the side. Go figure.

 

We concluded the evening with a rousing game of Farkle, which I almost won, until Mary kicked our butts in the final round with a HUGE roll of the dice!

1 July 2013: Chris, Dylan, and Mary enjoy cake and ice cream

JACOB: June 26th

Sorry, I got nothin'. No pictures, no story. Since Jacob was living in California at this time, we didn't get to celebrate his 22nd birthday with him. Again. We've missed his last 3 birthdays, since he was serving his mission in 2011 and 2012. But we sent him his gifts and cards and wished him a happy birthday from afar.

20 Mar 2013: Sarah, Chris, and Chris's niece Keri celebrate his day

CHRIS: March 28th

For my son-in-law Chris's 35th birthday, we were all invited to his mom Brenda's home for dinner and a party. They celebrated a week early because Brenda was going to be out of town on Chris's actual birthday. We enjoyed grilled burgers and a variety of delicious salads before Chris opened his gifts. We ended a pleasant evening with homemade birthday cake and ice cream.  

20 Mar 2013: Chris made out like a bandit!

There you have it: a year's worth of birthdays in one blog post! I think they were happy birthdays all around!

Love This Business

This is my favorite place to take my car for routine maintenance and repairs. Auto issues can be intimidating for a single mom with minimal money and no comprehension of what's under the hood. But when I come here, I know I'll be treated right. Not only are their prices fair, but they often go the extra mile and charge me nothing for it.

 

Once I got an entire oil change, including the oil at their cost, and they told me it was on the house. Just a couple of weeks ago one of my headlights died. I bought a new bulb and took it to my dad, who couldn't get to the bad bulb to replace it, so we drove over to Sunrise Tire. Within 10 minutes we were in and out, and we left with both headlights burning brightly. "No charge," I was told.

19 Nov 2013: My car gets a checkup

Yesterday I took my car in and asked them to check all the fluids, the filters, the tires, the brakes, and the funny hesitation in the motor that had just started that morning. With all those potential things to fix, they could have made some decent money off my ignorance.

 

The mechanic took my car right in and got straight to work. He reported that everything looked fine. All I needed was an oil change and new oil filter. He also recommended rotating my tires because the front tires were wearing faster than the back. I'd probably want a new air filter and fuel filter next time I come in for an oil change, he added.

 

So I got the oil change and my tires were rotated. They also topped off my washer fluid and blew the brake dust off my rear brakes for no extra cost. My car ran noticeably smoother as I drove away, all for less than $50. Yep, love this business!

Create!

19 Nov 2013: Dylan (age 16) displays his banner

Both my sons had opportunities to be creative this week. Today Dylan went on a job shadow required by one of his vocational classes. His career goal is to become a video game designer, but there are no such businesses here in our rural area. So he and his friend Mary elected to go to High Country Signs.

There they spent 3 hours watching the employees (including my long-time friend Paul Fish) do their jobs and getting some hands-on experience. Dylan and Mary each got to design and create their own banners and ended up with two pretty awesome signs to hang in their rooms. Dylan said the hardest part was having to sew the heavy plastic to finish off the banner.

He, of course, chose to put his favorite new Xbox game on his banner. Call of Duty: Ghosts came out a couple of weeks ago and Dylan was among the first in line to purchase it (with a little assist from his older brother). Now he can hang that lovely, creepy skull right over his bed...

18 Nov 2013: Jacob (age 22) prepares to leave for singles home evening;

you can see in his eyes how tired he is working 2 jobs!

Jacob actually had all day yesterday off. It was the first time in 3 weeks he didn't have to work at least one of his two jobs. That meant he got to attend the singles home evening activity, which was a dinner. Since his friend Bryn volunteered him to provide dessert, Jacob spent the afternoon whipping up oatmeal-Reeses Pieces cookies and toffee turtle bars.

18 Nov 2012: Jacob's culinary wizardry

When Jacob returned home last night, I asked him, "So did you meet my future daughter-in-law tonight?"

 

He gave me a pleased grin and replied, "Well, there was this one girl..."

 

Hmmm. I think I'll stay tuned...

Working Man

15 Nov 2013: Jacob finishes up his work day at Walmart

When it rains it pours! 

My son Jacob moved back to northern California on May 1st of this year (he'd served a 2-year mission for our church there in 2011-12).  While living there this time around, he worked the graveyard shift at a convenience store, but on August 17th he moved back home to Arizona. For the next 6 weeks he searched for a job with no luck.  Finally, on October 3rd he started a new job as a cashier at our local Walmart.

15 Nov 2013: Jacob (age 22) is ready to head to his next job

at Native New Yorker

We were so grateful that Jacob finally had a good job with decent pay and hours, especially since he needs a new car (and his rent money is most helpful to his mom)! But then a few weeks later, he got a call from Native New Yorker, a popular restaurant in nearby Show Low. They were looking for a fry-cook and liked his high school training in culinary arts.

 

Jacob aced his interview with the owner of the restaurant and was offered the job. The owner was impressed with Jacob's knowledge of commercial cooking and health laws. They wanted him so badly that they were willing to work around his Walmart hours.

 

That same night we happened to run into Jacob's high school culinary arts teacher, Kay Shores. She was thrilled when we told her how Jacob recalled specifics from her class more than 3 years after graduation.  She is a master teacher!

15 Nov 2013: I love the back of the official

Native New Yorker tee-shirt

So, since October 29th, Jacob has been working 2 jobs, putting in 70+ hours per week. His typical day starts around 6am, reporting to work at Walmart from about 7am to 4pm, then working at Native New Yorker from 5pm till closing, around 11pm. He works 5 days a week at Walmart and 6 nights a week at Native New Yorker.

 

Right now Jacob's life basically consists of working, working, eating, and sleeping (but not enough of that last one). No social life these days.  His schedule is kicking his booty, but he loves watching the money in his account grow.  He should be able to go car-shopping in the next few months. 

6 Sept 2010: Sarah's first month as a WalMart cashier,

3 years ago! She was still single then!

I might add that Sarah has been working at the same Walmart for more than 3 years. She started there in August of 2010, when she was 20.  She is also a cashier, although sometimes she works in Customer Service.

 

Here's a funny little side note: Sarah and Jacob's dad, Mark, was working at WalMart at the time of our divorce in 2006.  And he worked as a dishwasher at Native New Yorker in Mesa way back in 1988 when we started dating. Oh, the ironies of life.

7 Sept 2013: Mary wins a prize!

Back in September, Jacob and I hoped we might be able to win him a car. Our local electric co-op has an annual meeting, and they offer lots of prizes to get us members to show up. They have hundreds of small prizes like cookware, but this year they were also offering a used GMC Jimmy. How great would it be if Jacob could win that car, we asked ourselves.

7 Sept 2013: The un-winning tickets...

In the 23 years I've lived here in the White Mountains, I'd never attended this meeting. But this time Jacob and I were there, claiming our prize tickets and crossing our fingers for luck. No such luck. The numbers on our tickets weren't even close.

I did win an electric skillet, though!

7 Sept 2013: The emcee for the drawing is a friend of ours, Joe Kay

15 Nov 2013: A storm was rolling in when I picked up Jacob

from Walmart today; it's been raining, hailing, and thundering all night!

Bittersweet

1 Sept 2013: Sarah (age 23) and her mom, Mary,

on Mary's 59th birthday, getting a pedicure at Sassy's! 

Sunday was a bittersweet day for me.  The bitter was not being with my husband, Ed, who was born on September 1st like me.  Since we met in April 2010, we have spent our mutual birthday together every year.  With our birthday falling on or near Labor Day, we always booked a resort condo, usually in Tucson, and spent a wonderful weekend alone together.

 

This year, though, we are separated.  Family problems came to a head and we have been apart for almost 2 months.  I deeply love the good man who is my husband and I miss him terribly.  I hope we will be together again someday.  For now, this special weekend has been very difficult emotionally.

Glittery blue-and-silver toenails on Mary.

Thank goodness for my sweet children, who went the extra mile to cheer up their heartbroken mom.  On Saturday, my daughter Sarah took me to get a pedicure (my first ever) and to see a movie: Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.  The movie was pretty good and getting a pedicure with my daughter was fun.

Purple toenails for Sarah.

While waiting for our toenails to dry, the lady sitting in the chair next to Sarah commented to us, "You two must be related; you have the same toes."  Hmmm.  Our feet are so different, with mine being long and bony while Sarah's are short and chubby, that I never thought our toes might be the same!  I don't know, what do you think? 

Jacob grills my favorite meat, bone-in chicken breasts!

After church on Sunday, the day of my birthday, Jacob prepared my birthday dinner with the foods I requested (so I wouldn't have to cheat on my diet).

Grilled chicken breasts...

Fresh corn-on-the-cob from a neighbor's garden...

(Which I did not eat, by the way.  Too many carbs!)

Green salad with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers

from Ed's beautiful garden. 

(I so wish he were here to enjoy the fruits of his labors.)

 

Joining Jacob, Dylan, and I for dinner were Chris, Sarah, and our dear friend Gwen. 

My birthday dinner guests (left to right):

Chris, Sarah, Gwen, Dylan, and Jacob.

After dinner I opened the gifts.  The kids were very excited for me to open them, especially the large one that Jacob, Sarah, and Chris went in on together.

Gwen needlepointed the beautiful "Friends Forever" trinket.  I know just where it will hang in my office.  Jacob bought me the nativity to enjoy at Christmas.  Sarah gave me another lovely Willow Tree figurine for my Willow Tree collection.  This one features a girl releasing a white dove, and it's called "Soar."  I love it.

What was in the large package?  I was so delighted to find it was a weed-eater!  In Ed's absence, I had been lamenting the raggedy state of my front yard, so I felt it was an extremely thoughtful gift (even though I, personally, am unlikely to ever use it).  On Monday Jacob went out and made the front yard look presentable again.

Another thoughtful gift was this adorable hanging from my good friend Debbie, who took me to lunch at Persnikkity's on Friday.  I love the sentiment on the sign!

The 4 cards I received look nice on the entertainment center.

 

 

We ended the night with my all-time favorite dessert, a sugar-free cheesecake with sugar-free chocolate chips, homemade by my talented son Jacob.  It was delicious.  The secret?  A teaspoon of orange extract!

 

 

Not only did a nice wedge of this cheesecake not make me regain any weight, but I also lost another one-fifth of a pound the next morning!  My total loss today is 31.6 lbs, which is nice to report after a birthday weekend.

 

Mary with her birthday (cheese)cake.

 

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

 

Thank goodness for families who rally around during the tough times.  It was truly a bittersweet birthday, but the sweet parts made all the difference.