Phoenix Temple

I've never lived in an area where there was opposition to a temple being built. The temple in Idaho Falls was built in the early 1900's, and all the temples in Utah had been there a while, up until the last few were built. There is a temple being built in North Phoenix, not too far from Matt's school. We are excited to have the temple built so close to us, and look forward to the opportunity to go there. Here is a news story about the temple that was posted online. It's funny to me to see how people are opposed to such a wonderful building. Some of the things they have problems with is the traffic that the temple will bring and the lights on the temple. When I see or hear people on the news complaining about the lights on the temple, I can't help to wonder if the think the temple is going to look like a Las Vegas attraction with all the flashy lights. Have they not ever seen a temple?

City council OKs addition to Phoenix LDS temple

A Phoenix City Council zoning meeting has determined the fate of a controversial Valley Mormon Temple.
The Council voted unanimously Wednesday to allow the LDS church to add 10 feet of height to its proposed temple, to be built near 51st Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Rd, adjacent to the church's current building.
The building will stand 40 feet high, despite typical residential zoning laws preventing buildings from exceeding 30 feet in height.
"Being legally allowed to do something doesn't mean you're being respectful to the neighborhood," said Scott Anderson, who spoke on behalf of neighborhood protesters after the vote Wednesday night.
Anderson said a group of neighbors will not give up their fight to get the issue to voters.
According to city leaders, a group must gather 9,798 legitimate petition signatures from registered Phoenix voters within thirty days in order to push the issue towards the ballot.
Supporters, meanwhile, say they are anxious to move forward with their plans.
"We're going to make every effort to make peace with the neighbors," said Paul Gilbert, an attorney representing the temple supporters.
Gilbert said the temple supporters have already made several concessions regarding the proposed addition, including agreeing to turn the lights off at 10 p.m. and changing the color of the exterior paint they had intended.
Residents living nearby have expressed concerns about the proposed 126-foot high steeple which they say will obstruct their mountain views.
On Sunday, November 22, dozens of protesters picketed services at the north Phoenix LDS church.
Thirty people lined the north Phoenix intersection, letting passing drivers know of their opposition to the church building a temple.
"We respect their right to worship, this isn't about religion," said Anderson. "What it's about is a building that's incompatible with the neighborhood."
Neighbors like Don Egigian have also expressed frustrations with the proposal.
"Their impact as far as making our neighborhood better is zero," Egigian said.
Neighbors say, for one, the temple will bring in additional traffic which they claim the roads in the area can't handle.
"Anytime you put a high intensity, large project next to low intensity homes, it creates problems," Anderson said.
Most residents take issue with the temple's height; proposed plans have it at 40 feet with a 78 foot spire with a light on top.
"Lighting is a huge issue, it'll be lit until 11 o'clock at night," Egigian said.
Many neighbors say a building of that height doesn't belong in a residential community. There is also concern the light at the top of the steeple could be distracting.

The Return of Matt

After going dark for about a month during finals, I have resurfaced with some new projects and I am here to update them on the blog. Finals were fine and as a reward I got 2 weeks off. The first week I was occupied with Grandpa and Grandma Serafine visiting from California. They stayed with us a few nights and ended up in a time share resort for a few more nights. We had a good time and enjoyed their company. I also have had a chance to start and finish a few different projects. One major one was the backyard. Those that have visited saw the unfinished and unkept backyard. So, I fixed all of the sprinkler heads, cut down the old summer grass, planted new winter grass, cleaned the planters, built a firepit, planted some plants/trees, and finished a back porch overhang. I also golfed in 75 degree weather last Thursday. All in all it has been a successful break.




It was good to get the sprinklers working.

Stacy admiring her new garden plots

Dont mind the dirt yard, it hopefully will be green soon enough

Craigslist Upgrade

When we moved into our house, the only thing I didn't clean was the range hood. It was gross, and wasn't worth cleaning. We have been searching for a microwave to replace it with, but didn't want to spend a lot of money. Craigslist delivered for us, and we now are the owners and installers of a new shiny microwave.

DIY: Paint

Like many people nowadays, we purchased a home that was a foreclosure. Ours was in pretty good shape, but needed a lot of cosmetic work. Let's just say that as far as cosmetics go, our house was wearing blue eye shadow and hot pink lipstick. Anyway, one of the things in our house that needed a face lift was our cabinets. They are those really great ones that are part laminate and part wood, because they were too cheap to go all wood in the first place. The cabinets themselves were in decent shape, but the laminate was coming off in some places because when we pulled up the vinyl floor, the floor was glued to the cabinets.

Before I show you the actual cabinets, I'd like to introduce you to the Serafine featured product: Glidden's Gripper.

When I painted my laminate bookshelf a while back, I had to sand the whole thing down. Although it wasn't a big bookshelf, it took forever to sand and paint. I didn't really feel sanding an entire kitchen full of cabinets, and lo and behold, Gripper. Gripper allows you to paint anything. Even plastic. My only warning: it's super sticky and doesn't wash off your skin very well. I accidentally stuck my foot in some of it, and I had primer on me for a few days.

Cabinets before: (this is before we moved in)

During:


After:



Coming soon: stainless steel microwave. We're picking it up on Saturday. Our microwave just wasn't something I could paint and cover with contact paper. : )

the Arizona heat'll kill ya

You all knew it was hot here, but did you know it was this hot? Not too long ago, these poor melted pumpkins looked like this:

Matt meets Bill Simmons

White Coat Ceremony

Medical schools hold white coat ceremonies to officially 'coat' the first-year students. I guess it's the ceremony to welcome the medical students to the medical profession.

Here's Matt getting his coat. It isn't a very good picture, I know, because it was in an auditorium that was too dark to take any good pictures.

Matt and one of our new medical school friends, Sam Ashby. His wife Heather and I went to support these great students. : )

CSI: Our House

Last Sunday morning, Matt comes to me and says, "I don't know if you want to know this, but the cops are outside our house because someone got stabbed." Now, you may be thinking, 'Where in the world did these people move to?' Here's how the story unraveled: About 8:30 Sunday morning, Matt went outside to get the paper. When he steps outside, he notices that there is police line caution tape tied to our front stoop and is strung across the street and tied to our neighbor's tree. There are police cars outside, a few detectives, and cops putting down cones, talking to people, and so forth. Matt asks one of the cops in our driveway what was going on and finds out that someone was stabbed and is at the hospital. Unable to get a whole lot of information from the police officer, we were left wondering who in the world was stabbed and hoping that the stabber wasn't our next door neighbor. A few days later, while Matt was outside, our neighbor comes outside too. Matt talked to our neighbor, and it turns out that his nephew, who lived with our neighbor a long time ago, was visiting and was hanging out on the busy street outside our neighborhood. He and his buddies were out at 5 am, and someone drove by, and the boys yelled at the car. The people in the car went and got their buddies, came back to the street outside our neighborhood, and proceeded to beat up and stab our neighbor's nephew. After being stabbed 8 times (yes, 8) the nephew ran back to our neighbor's house, bleeding all over the street. Our neighbor promptly drove the nephew to the hospital. So, stabbing = cops. It's never a dull moment here.