Christmas Letter, 2008

I did three particularly interesting things this year.

1. I made friends with a zebra! Lately, I’ve been visiting Zoey the Zebra and her sidekick, Lady the Llama, about once a week. Zoey is five years old, she was born in California, but has lived happily in the sideyard of a house in West Mesa since she was three months old. Lady had a baby in November, and the little llama is on display with her mom in the front of the house. They have some interesting neighbors, on their property and throughout their rural neighborhood. There are lots of horses, including some Clydesdales and a few miniature horses. There’s a big bull. Goats and sheep, ducks and geese, dogs and cats, cows, the occasional chicken hawk and lots of beautiful and colorful chickens. We’re still not sure why they cross the road.

2. I spent some time with my cousin, Elizabeth. She has lived much of her adult life outside of Arizona, but this year she came to see us a few times. In January, she came to attend to her father, my Uncle Marlan Miller, and help him settle some of his business affairs. In July she arrived when her father became ill and was hospitalized. She stayed to attend to him until he passed away on July 15. Lovely funeral, many kind tributes from friends, family and church people. Then began the disassembling of Marlan’s household. What an adventure! We all participated, took some of his treasures into our own lives and helped prepare for the estate sale. Again, Elizabeth came to supervise the sale and dispose of the rest of Marlan’s things. Each time she came to town there was much visiting and eating of Mexican food. Elizabeth is a lovely person, and it was a delight to get re-acquainted with her this year!

3. I changed my voter registration. This being an election year, I was quite active in the political process. I’ve been an officer in District 18 Republicans and also in Mesa Republican Women. I enjoy the association with great people and some of the movers and shakers of our neck of the woods. However, I now officially live at my mom’s house, which is in District 19. So after the November election, I changed my voter registration to the new address. Please note this address, phone number, e-mail and blog site:
Julianne Miller
2726 East Decatur
Mesa, AZ 85213
(480) 898-8711
JulianneMiller2004@Yahoo.com
http://www.juliannemiller.blogspot.com


Most Mondays find me at cooking class at the Mesa Cannery. I bring recipes home and share them with my mom, who does most of the cooking in our household. It’s great to get new ideas, and again, associate with lovely and interesting people.

Still attend the theater, although this year I have only five sets of season tickets. Scaling back. There are two investment clubs and three book clubs. Because I’m a natural note-taker, I’m the secretary or acting secretary for all these groups.

I remain active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am thankful for my testimony of the Saviour, His divinity, His atonement, His love for all mankind, and especially for me. I had a major and a minor surgery this year, and was greatly blessed by God through it all! My mom took good care of me when I was ill, and continues to help me in a hundred ways a day. She is a great blessing in my life, and I try to be a blessing in hers. Here’s hoping you have family and friends to bless your lives, as well.

Merry Christmas to all!

Goodreads: Adventures in Books with the Nieces and Nephews

I have been remiss in blogging! Sorry. I was all excited to start a blog, then I couldn't think of anything to say. How silly!

Thanks to Johnny and Shelby and many of the nieces and nephews, I am now a happy member of "Goodreads". This is almost an on-line book club. Or think of it as your own personal book journal. It's where I keep track of the books I'm reading or listening to, while at the same time I find out what all the kids are reading, as well! Great fun!

When I finish a book, I post it on "Goodreads" and I can rate the book, giving it from one to five stars. Then I can write a paragraph about the book, what was fun about it or what wasn't. I write well, and this gives me something to write about. So I often get carried away and write way too much. I try not to give away too much of the story. Which brings me to one of my pet peeves: those blurbs on the back of a book jacket. They tell you too much! They give away secrets. They spoil the fun and adventure of reading along and having surprises. I refuse to read the back of a book until I have finished reading the book itself.

So I write my book reviews as though they had hired me to write the blurb on the book jacket. I put in stuff to make you want to read the book, but I don't give away any surprises. At least, that's my goal.

Here's a review I wrote today on the book, Skeleton Canyon by J. A. Jance.

This is Book #5 of the Joanna Brady Mystery Series. Wonderful! It starts out at a high school football game and ends up with murder and mayhem. In between you have Romeo and Juliet, nuns, smugglers, wild parrots, an abandoned cemetery, a search for Wedgewood China, Girl Scout camp, flash floods, people who elope, racism, at least three drunks, a flying bra, javelina tracks, a helicopter rescue and the fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Which is better in the hot summer of Southern Arizona, a Crown Victoria with air conditioning or an Eagle SUV without? Well, it depends....are the washes running? If so, then you'd best get in the Hummer! This book takes us from Mount Lemmon to Bisbee to Peoria to the Mexican border. And in charge of it all is Joanna Brady, the sheriff of Cochise County. What a woman! In one day she rides a horse in the parade, hosts a wedding at her ranch in the afternoon and presides over the fireworks show that evening. And she does it all with grace, with authority and a gentle sense of humor. I recommend this book and this entire series to anyone who wants to have a wild adventure in reading!

Go to www.Goodreads.com to see more of my reviews and find out what the rest of the family is reading.

Cousin Elizabeth and The Estate Sale, Again

Just came back from a farewell dinner with Cousin Elizabeth. What a lovely gal she is! We have really enjoyed the time we've spent with her these past weeks. Today it was Beverly, Julianne and Jennifer, my younger sister, plus Richard and Liz. We went to Big Apple and had supper and talked. Tomorrow she turns in the rental car and flies back to Portland, then drives to her home in Washington.

She's had a busy time here. The estate sale was highly successful, and they got rid of most of the stuff. She donated some art pieces to Mesa Community College today, and that clears off most everything of value, except for the two houses. Lots of people asked about those, and here's hoping they sell quickly. Liz has told Carmello and his family that they need to be out of the house by the end of September. They have already vacated the other house.

Ron McGale was a big help with all the selling. He knows the prices, and the background of so many of the things. He brought in people who appreciated Marlan's collection. He still has two pieces he will try to sell to antique dealers or art dealers. Thanks to Ron, the sale was a success!

Thanks to John Eddie, Jeannie Lambert got in touch with Liz and said she would be glad to have the big yellow painting back. Liz said she would un-frame it and roll it up to be shipped. In doing that, some of the leaves cracked and came off. It looked like Jean had maybe used real leaves, applied them to the painting and then painted over them. It made that part of the piece 3-dimensional. So that is some damage that can be easily repaired. The painting will now have a home where it is appreciated. Another problem solved.

Mother broke her foot! She was dancing on my bed the other day, trying to hang one of Marlan's paintings above the bed. Didn't tell me what she was doing until she was in trouble and needed the hammer. Probably broke a little bone in the top of her left foot. Won't hear of going to the emergency room to have it x-rayed, so we'll just wrap it and let her suffer through.

We watched Sarah Palin's talk last night, and we LOVE her! What a great choice she is! And the photos of that little girl holding the baby and licking her hand and then using it to fix his hair -- you can't buy that kind of publicity! Go Sarah! Hockey moms of the world, unite!

Uncle Richard has been haunting the D.I. and the Goodwill stores as usual, and he found a western painting done by one J. Crandall. Waiting for the "seniors half-price Saturday sale" to buy it. Does anyone know if it might be one of our cousins who did it? Who paints? If Marlan and Jeannie are artists, it wouldn't be a surprise if there are other artists out there dangling from our family tree!

Today at my Mesa Republican Woman luncheon our guest speaker was Greg Patterson, who writes "The Espresso Pundit" blog. It is a highly respected and heavily read political commentary blog. He gave us the background of blogs and blogging, then told how blogs have changed the world! One of the political blogs, "The Drudge Report", has a higher circulation than the New York Times! In fact, it's ten times higher! Greg believes that if it weren't for blogs, we would now be trying to defeat John Kerry in his bid for re-election. Check out http://espressopundit.com/ and see what he wrote about us! It's on his September 4 entry. Then go to http://www.drudgereport.com/ and remember that Matt Drudge now has more power than the editor of the New York Times!

If you find any typos, remember that I still have my hand bandaged from carpal tunnel surgery last week. The bandage is putting in lots of extra letters and spaces. Maybe it has a message it wants to get out ...spooky, huh?

Enough for now.

The Big Estate Sale

First let me say that my computer has a new trick lately. It likes to reset its clock to January 1, 2002! I didn't even own the computer until summer, 2003. It sat in a box on a shelf until then. Maybe January 1, 2002 is when it was "born"? I don't understand.

Yesterday I attended the estate sale at my Uncle Marlan's house. Marlan passed away last month. His daughter, Elizabeth, is tending to the details of disposing of her father's things and closing up the house. Big job! Marlan's friend, Ron McGale, is helping in the process. So I went over for the first day of the big estate sale. Thought I might be needed, but Liz and Ron had things well in hand. Lots of people. Lots of sales. I was mostly sitting and visiting with folks as they came in. Carmello, Marlan's friend and roommate, had a yard sale going in the garage at the same time. It's all very well organized.

The biggest sale of the day was a pencil sketch by an artist named Gorman, 1960's, that sold for $700. The biggest surprise of the day was the big yellow painting in the dining room. Liz said that when Marlan bought it from a catalogue, he didn't notice the size listed -- 54" by 90"! That makes it 7½ feet tall! So Liz got out the catalogue for me. The painting had been listed at $8500 when it was in a gallery show in Salt Lake City. I looked at the catalogue and discovered that the artist is one Jean Lambert! Oh my!! That's our cousin! They even have Jeannie's photo and an essay where she talks about that painting. No wonder Marlan has it - he bought it from his niece!

The estate sale continues today and Saturday. Then whatever is left will go to Carmello's yard sale inventory, to the church for its jumble sale, some clothing to Mexico and maybe some items donated to Deseret Industries or Goodwill.

Meanwhile, not much in the way of other news. I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand on Wednesday. It takes all day to get ready for the surgery, go to the surgery center, sign in, answer lots of questioms, wait around, answer more questions, etc. But the surgery itself only takes about six minutes! I heard them say we were starting at 16:48, and I was in recovery and talking to the nurse at 16:58! All that preparation, and it's over in ten minutes! Now my hand is bandaged and it is inconvenient. It stayed numb all night and into the next day, and I was worried about that. Later I found out that that is normal, as they put some sort of a block in there so you don't have pain.

We had dinner Monday with Liz and Richard. Olive Garden. Mother is getting a perm today. Primary elections coming on Tuesday. We had rain twice already this week. Lots of thunder and lightning! We thought it was the Fourth of July fireworks, but much bigger and louder!

That's my report for now. I welcome comments and suggestions from any of you blog readers. Please send all comments and questions along to us.

Love,
Julianne

So, I Started A Blog!

My niece, Jenice, called to say I could start a blog, and she will help me. Hurray!

First let me say that I don't do "Times New Roman". My favorite font is "Comic Sans", Size 14. Also, lately I use "Arial" most of the time. Greatly superior to that insidious "Times New Roman"! It's trying to take over the world, you know. Let's see if I can fix that problem right now.

This is "Arial". They didn't have "Comic Sans" as one of the choices. I'll have to investigate that.

Here it is in "Largest". Better, huh?

OK, now let's see if it lasts.
I guess it's all trial and error from here.
Wish me luck!

Julianne