Double Shooting

After returning to town from an evening off and about with my hubby it was distressing to learn there had been a double shooting, two deaths, in our little town this evening. One of the shooting victims is someone I've known nearly all his life - Vince Romero, son of Leroy and Liz Romero. What a shock!

UPDATE: This is far more than a shock, words just cannot describe. These two men were shot and killed by Vince's son ... his young son. Very young. Vince's 8 year old son was responsible for these shooting deaths.

Disturbing the Peace

Sunday is usually a pretty quite day here in St. Johns. It's not one of the days where you'd be likely to awake to the sound of a lawn mower or weed-eater or anything. This past Sunday, yesterday, the peace was definitely shattered ... right here in our driveway.

TJei and I got up and got dressed and headed out for church. She was saying the opening prayer in Primary so she was quite enthusiastic. Quentin headed out sometime after we had left. He went to Springerville to attend the missionary farewell of a friend he met at EA.

Later in the afternoon when Quentin got ready to leave, TJei had a hissy - big time. She didn't want Tio Quentin to leave. She cried and cried, and cried and cried. Mike remedied the situation by telling TJei she could climb into the back end of the truck and cry there. That worked, for a while. She wailed away ... until a neighbor came to the door, TJei in tow, after rescuing her from the truck.

It was quite embarrassing to tell Jamie that she had been left there intentionally. So much for quiet Sunday afternoons.

Plans for St. Johns

This image outlines proposed development of a large parcel of land just at the south edge of town. The blue asterik * shaped area at right side is where Jones Auto is located on the Springerville Highway at 7th Street West. The other end of the diagram is where the developers are hoping to extend 13th West all the way through to the highway.

The location isn't specifically identified on the diagram but the developers are also looking to have a dinner type restaurant situated within that retail area (red on diagram). That would be nice.

It isn't known just yet which motel chain would come in on that 3 acre parcel (purple segment) but it would be good to have something a bit updated available for visitors. The yellow "flex" areas are planned to be office condo type spaces - professional offices, etc.

Okay, another view of the same diagram for better orientation to the current townsite.

Snow Again Today

We had snow on the ground again this morning. It looks like most of it has melted off right now but it sure had a good covering on the ground to start the day. Seeing the snow made missing the lunar eclipse a bit more bearable. (I love the night sky!) Jacob called last night and reminded me to go and look. I'd spent some time standing out in the yard, freezing my tail off because I hadn't put a coat on, and strained to see any glimpe of the eclipse. It wasn't to be ... there was high cloud coverage over most of the sky. I did enjoy the early morning glisten of the snow though!

It Had to Happen Someday

Many, many years ago someone (memory totally eludes me at this point) introduced Mike & I to warehouse shopping - Sam's Club. Living in a remote area of the state, especially back in the day when price gouging all us noobies relocating into this area was quite common, buying in bulk seemed a lifesaver for families - especially ours. Nearly everything we used was purchased in lots of 3, 6, 9, 12 or more units.

Need a tube of toothpaste? Why not a three-pack? Running low on Irish Spring? Grab a 12 bar package down that isle. The kids need spiral notebooks for class? Grab a package of 24 next time we're at "the store". We even added shelves downstairs in the basement to store our inventory of bulk purchases! There are still flats of canned vegetables - yes, they've been rotated and we eat them too - down there on the shelves.

From five-gallon pails of laundry detergent to frozen lasagna we have bought nearly everything with shelf-life in bulk. We get milk, eggs, fresh veggies, etc at the local grocery store and seriously, Wilbur's meat department cannot be beat! They have the best cuts of meat and pricing ever.

Today the inevitable has happened ... the last square of toilet paper on the roll. We really should have picked up TP when we got that new membership for Costco back at the end of November. We didn't though. After buying the membership, we went into the store and looked around. We stopped by the Verizon shop in there and didn't get a phone to replace mine. :-( I'm not sure, we may have left from the store empty-handed ... it was just that drive to be part of "wholesale" shopping that got us in there at all.

Now, we're going to have to purchase toilet paper at regular retail price. This is going to require some serious rethinking of our shopping habits now that all the kids are gone.

Happy Anniversary

Today is Jacob and Maria's first anniversary. They are so sweet together and I am so very happy that Jacob and Maria found one another and are building a life together.

Jacob stopped by for a brief visit earlier ... I actually suspect he wanted to visit his Dad's new vehicle since he eagerly drove out to the plant to trade vehicles and bring the new one back into town. He and Maria will be celebrating their anniversary next week, after Thanksgiving, when they take a cruise from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico.

Jacob and Maria are in town celebrating the marriage (reception) of their good friend, Carrie Bond who is also from SJ.

I am so grateful to have Maria in our family. She is a sweet, sweet young lady and she works hard to support Jacob in his educational pursuits. They are a great team! I love them both.