Come meet a Ward of our ward

Sister Michele Ward has been in the ward for 19 years. She is a busy mom, and our ward primary president. Michele met her husband Bob at a ward party. Then they were on the ward activities committee together at BYU. They have 5 children. The oldest, Sarah, is 20 and currently attending BYU herself (see earlier post of Sarah Ward.) The youngest, Lydia, is 6. Michele is currently homeschooling Julia, their middle child who is in junior high. Their other 2 children are Robbie, a senior in high school. And John who is between Lydis and Julia. For fun Michele -(what's that? I have no time for fun, she says) - she likes to escape and go for a bike ride. She got a new bike for her birthday and she loves getting away for a ride. She likes to read. She enjoys historical fiction and children literature. Her favorite vacation spot is the beach. I love the beach, too! When you have a chance stop by the primary room and say hello to Michele.

She can sing, she can play the piano, do I hear a sacrament solo coming on?

Krista Richards is fairly new to our ward and she fairly new to the married life, too. She is a newlywed. She has been married to David for 2 1/2 months. They were married in the San Diego Temple. They met at school last October. Both were attending Chandler/Gilbert community college. They met in the choir there. Their first date was to the Diamondbacks game with friends. After the game they went to Las Sendas and were on a Mountain over looking the golf course talking and hanging out. About 3 months later he took her on a date. He took her up to the same mountain they went to on their first date and that is where he popped the question! (Aww, so romantic!)
Krista is quite musically inclined. She loves singing and playing the piano. She also enjoys shopping and doing crafts. (She loves doing the crafts!)

Krista grew up with 4 younger brothers. She grew up in Tempe and moved to Ohio when she was 13. She attended BYU Idaho for a semester and then came back here last fall. Good thing, too, since David was here.

Krista and David have a puppy Zeus who is 3 months old. They have him for 1 month. He is an Australian Shepherd and Krista tells me he is the best little puppy in the world! We are so glad to welcome this sweet sister to our ward!

G3 is what home feels like...

Erica Schifsky has been happily married for 10 years. She has 2 beautiful daughters, Victora and Samantha. They have 3 dogs. Erica told me a little about their pups. "Our Great Dane puppy Oreo is now 85 lbs and growing a pound a day. Just a bit different from Max & Clifford our 2 miniature dachshunds We love to go on bike rides with Oreo to the park each night."
When Erica and her family moved into their home 6 years years ago their intentions were to stay there for only 6 months! Erica just fell in love with the ward. She is very attached. She is currently service as a teacher in our primary. She also volunteers 3 days a week at her daughters school.

For fun she like to do things outdoors. She loves to snow ski. She enjoys mountain biking as well. She also enjoys reading. At heart she feels she is a homebody. (Although her husband jokes he married one of the only Mormons who doesn't clean, cook, or do other home making type things.) She loves road trips. Her longest was with her husband. The drove all the way from Atlanta to Seattle. (Wow!)

Get to know Jill ~~ 16 years in the ward (area) and counting...

Jill Dawson is married to Ed. They have 2 boys ages 12 & 14. Ed teaches at Hamilton High School and he coaches lots and lots of basketball. Jill is an accountant. She owns her own firm. She is also the Relief Society Secratary.
Jill tells me she has no time for fun. Between work and church and the kids there is not time for much else. But, I pressed her. When there is a lull or a break in her busy life she loves to travel. Once a year her and her sister take a trip to New York. Her favorite thing to do in the Big Apple is to see Broadway shows. Her favorite is Wicked. Her second favorite thing to do when in NYC is eating.

This year for her birthday she go to go to Shipwreck at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. The ship is all done up like a haunted house and there are scary mazes. At the time of the interview she was really looking forward to this little get away. Be sure and ask her what she thought.

A fun fact about her location and our ward... Jill has lived in her house for 16 years. In that time she has been in 7 different wards, 5 different buildings, and 2 stakes. And she never moved!

Get to know Keri... Raising 5 kids, runs marathons, host a TV show and more!

Keri McCook served a mission in Charlotte NC. She was an exchange student and lived in Australia for a while. She was born and raised in Arizona. She's a native! Keri has been married to Bishop Ron McCook for almost 15 years. They celebrate their 15 year anniversary on December 1st. They have 5 kids, ages 13, 11, 7, 6, and 3.

For fun Keri loves to cut hair. She even had her own salon for a while. She also likes to snow ski, water ski and travel. Her favorite place to travel to is New York City. She loves Broadway. Her favorite show she says is probably Wicked.

Keri is currently participating in a show that is airing on daytime TV on channel 13. It is a show called Mom Time. They are filming 20 show some she will be in and some will be filmed in her home. It is a show about moms and tips for moms. It is a set up similar to the View. You get several mom's views on a specific topic. It is about life. You can catch is at 11am on channel 13.

On October 3rd Keri ran a marathon in St. George Utah. (That is awesome! 26.3 miles! Wow!!)

Talk about musical talents and abilities...

Lynda Cull has been married to Ernie for 15 years. They have 2 children, Pieper (age 7) and Liam (age 6.) Lynda has been in our ward since before it was a ward. She has lived in the same neighborhood for 17 years!! She is currently serving as the primary secretary.
For fun Lynda likes doing crafts and sewing & being organized. Her favorite thing is being organized. I showed her the inside of my bag (which is always worse on Sundays since i combine my purse and diaper bag) and she cringed. Literally cringed. :) She has her kids chores organized, but she also has a chore box for her self. It is a box of index cards. She rotates the cards. The are color coded and filed and rotated and very very organized! Lynda also plays instruments. She plays all of the wind instruments. All of them, as in flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, and so on. This to me is so amazing. I know, I for one would love to hear her play! It was fun getting to know this amazing sister. Stop by the primary and tell Lynda hello.

She is getting ready for her mission!

Gerry Price has been in this ward for almost 5 years. Before that her and her wonderful husband of 7 1/2 years (Jim) were in Singles Ward, as Jim was a member of that bishopric. They have 4 kids and 9 grand babies. Brother and Sister Price have received a mission call and will be serving a mission in England, London. (We say it backward here in the states!)
Gerry recently retired after 36 years as a dental hygienist. She may go back to it after coming home from her mission.

For fun Gerry likes to go flying in Jim's plane. If you were to ask him, he'd tell you he bought it for her. She also likes to read and she likes being with her grand kids.

Gerry has a twin sister named Kerry who looks a lot like her. They have on occasion switched places. They've fooled some people, too. So, when it comes time for Gerry to speak in church for her missionary farewell be on the look out for it to possibly be Kerry. Hee-hee. Riiiight....

We'll miss you, Gerry!

Getting "caught" reading can change your life. . .

Mallory was very excited when I interviewed her for the blog/newsletter. Then weeks went by and the write up didn't come. Finally it is here. I met with Mallory a few weeks before she spoke in Sacrament meeting. She was helping out in nursery and I found out she is very excited to be pregnant with her first child. She is due February 15th, but she is going to push it out on the 14th, she says.

Mallory is married to Tim Withers. She is a native of Arizona. She was married March 7th and moved to our ward into our ward to start her married life. Mallory and Tim met through mutual friends in high school. They dated for 2 months. Then Tim left for his mission. They kept in touch via mutual friends for the next 7 years. One day she signed on to AIM (instant messaging on the computer) and he was there. She took him out and bought him lunch and they have been together ever since.
Sister Withers is a convert to the church. A few years ago she was working for a doctors office where everyone was Mormon. One day at work she was reading the Book of Mormon and some one "caught" her. She thought she was going to be in trouble for reading it. She wasn't sure she was allowed to read it. Her coworkers let her know it was a-ok to read the Book of Mormon. They set her up with the missionaries and 3 months later she was baptised.

Mallory works for a doctor in Scottsdale. For fun she likes to go shopping but she is not a good sale shopper. She also goes on hikes with her husband.

How Brady came to be in AZ

Erin Low loves reading. She could just sit and read all day and be happy. She, at the time of the interview, was reading Sookie Stack House novels. She also enjoys scrap booking and making Brady (that's her son) t-shirts. She is the activities day coordinator for the girls just before young women age in the ward. She really enjoys this calling.
Erin met her husband James when she went on a trip to Hawaii to visit a boy she dated who happened to live next to James. Back home on the mainland they were both in the same stake. About 4 months after their meeting in HI they met again around Christmas time. She went up and introduced herself again and they started writing to each other. She was friends with his sister. He came back to California in April for a farewell and they hung out the whole weekend. All summer they visited and wrote back and forth. In August that year Erin took it upon herself to move to Hawaii. She went on the BYU housing board and found a place to live. She found a job, and she dated James for the next 8 months. Then in January he popped the question.
They have been married 2 years and 2 months. After James graduated they decided to move to AZ because they didn't want to live with either set of parents! They have been here about a year. Brady is just over 6 months old. He is so sweet and cute!!