Halloween

Reggie and Noah! They have such cute pjs!

Last night there was some pumpkin carving & tonight there will be trick or treating! Fun in Utah 🧡

Costume parade at Ezzies school. And its not snowing yet in Idaho! 

Much to my shock we got trick or treaters at our little house in the woods. I only bought one bag of candy on the off chance that someone knocked. We ran out and had to turn off all our lights and sit in the dark starting at 7:30!

Next year I’ll do better.

 

Bub's weekend.

Ethan and Ruby were astronauts.  Ethan went to a Halloween party with Travis (who just got home from his mission). 

Coco was an angel for this photo shoot. At one time she also had an astronaut costume but maybe it got lost or maybe it is too small, or maybe she wanted to be an angel. All possible. 

He also went to a mini mission reunion.  I really want to take a trip to Spain with him to see where he served. 

 The rest of our weekend was good.  Rob went fishing with Pete on Saturday and then he watched Ohio State win their football game. 

Yesterday Mike and Colleen and Alexis came over for dinner.  We had a nice dinner and did a little painting craft after we ate. It was a nice evening. 

I don't know too much about what anyone else did.  I know Ezra made a huge poop mess during his quiet time. (I don't miss those days!), and Sawyer had a big project to work on, so he spent a lot of time at school working where it is quiet. They had friends over on Sunday as well and it's not too snowy yet!

Grace went to a haunted house with her boyfriend and studied. 

Chris went hunting and I saw some locket photos from Tatum where she was hanging out with friends. 

Its warm again

I went to Jamies last night, she made the cutest snacks! a little update, it was for book club. I didn't want to say it because I have not been going to Patuxent's book club...or our online TX friend's book club both of which I love but have trouble keeping up with.  So, what changed?  first and most importantly. my Liberty commitments have slowed way down. I feel pretty confident that I can keep up with reading recreationally until May. second, I need to plant some roots in LP.  I still feel like Pax is "my ward" and that is where my closest friends live. But I'm not in that ward and I won't make friends just by attending on Sundays. I do have friendships in LP but they are not deep, except for a few people that I was friends with before.  So ...

Today was an early release day so after work Rob and I went to the DC temple. 

Yeaterday this little bear had her first trunk or treat. 

 Men In Black! Tatum and her friends💕

Cold

Its been fire in the fireplace weather this week. 

I love when E posts on instagram.

The leaves are turning and they are very pretty.

Taco is dumb but he entertains us.

Dress like your grandparents day for Penny and Marshall💕

More cat photos 🤦🏽‍♀️

And he managed to get himself locked outside this morning. No one is home to answer his knock.

 The kids are getting snow. Grace is happy to wear her duckboots. 

chilly

It is definitely fall here.  This morning it was 44 and the high is only going to be in the low 60's. 

When we were on our girl's trip Dani brought me this book.  She didn't like it but thought I might. She was right, I enjoyed it.  Last week I was on my fall break and finally had time to read it and it was a fun, Halloween appropriate, story. If you like strong women, clean, magical, books that are a quick read this is for you.  Rob and I also watched a lot of episodes of New Amsterdam, during my week off. We haven't seen it before, and we are both enjoying it.  When we were dating, we watched ER together so it kind of brings us back to those days of staying up late, holding hands on the couch, and watching TV doctors do their thing.  

The Spanish Fork library had a Halloween Ball this last weekend.  The Brandt kids went to babysit the Johnson kids and all the adults went to the ball.  They had a fun time. I love that they live close to each other and are best friends.  Ethan also lives near them and spends a lot of time with the sisters. Best case scenario. Well, best-case-adjacent. It would be better if I also lived there, and Hannah and Grace. But still really a great case and it makes me super glad. 

Enid and Wednesday

 We had a good weekend.  Last night we had Mark and Lyndee and the missionaries over for dinner.  Mark is taking the lessons and we thought it would be fun to get to know them better. We had a lesson after dinner and then had dessert that Lyndee brought. 

Also, last night Darcy called me. I had a dizzy talk with her as she ran around and showed me the moon, the fire, Si Si, her cookie and all the things. She is so cute!

Rob watched the Ohio State game on Saturday and was happy that they won.  I went to the store. I needed a few things for colder weather that I could wear to work. 

So bad news on the practicum front.  I was all set to go, turned in my paperwork, and there was a clerical problem.  Now I have to wait until May to start, which is SUPER frustrating and annoying to me. Seriously I was not happy. I feel an urgency to get done, and a strong desire to dive in and help.  I started classes last October and have been taking a full load the whole time, which has been awesome.  Now I have to slow down and have this annoying gap! I have to decide, today, whether to take my 2 term D classes that start today and have no classes from Jan to May or push those two and take one at a time in the spring semester and have nothing for the rest of this semester. I am leaning towards the later because the end of Oct. thru Christmas is busy and goes by quickly anyway.  Either way I'll take the NCE and the CPCE in the spring so if there is a silver lining it's that no matter which way, I choose to do it I will have a much lighter load and more time to study. (That is me making lemonade).

I got my latest labs back and my TSH was low, meaning I need a little less thyroid.  My blood sugar and cholesterol were both high. Which means I eat like crap, I guess.  I need to make some changes, so I don't become a diabetic or have a heart attack.  The weird thing is the last time I had labs done everything was in the normal range. Is it the drop of dopamine and serotonin that comes from moving out of Florida?? I do walk less, I did a lot of walking before, walking the parks, walking the dog.  Now I don't but I'm adding that back into my routine.  

art

Bounce (like the dryer sheet)

I have a list of talents that I would like to have, but have not developed, or don't have any natural inclinations for.  Singing, that's number one on my list. Also I'd like to be a linguist, a theologian, an artist, a runner, a financial wizard, funny, a swimmer, to have a great memory and to be thoughtful and generous.  From time to time one of these wish-I-had talents pops up.  This month is inktober and Holly is participating. It has been so much fun to see her creative drawings.  She is so good.  (see below). 

Each day there is a one word theme and you sketch a doodle in ink that you come up with from the prompt. I thought it would be fun and that maybe I would improve as the month progressed. Sadly I have not improved that much, and my art looks like a middle schooler drew it, a not particularly talented middle schooler! Lol! (See above).

Map by Holly

Who is an artist is Cora.  She drew a ghost with a ghost cookie yesterday! Love it!!

Cookie by Cora

 

Hannah took some fall photos for a friend, and she took some of Lu. She’s offering fall mini sessions, it would be nice for her to make some $ & she happens to be a good photographer so 🤞.

She also got glasses this last week. Cute girl!

 Our weather is fallish. Good thing we went on thst alaska cruise last fall because that means I have a few cute cold weather things to wear! Its been a years since we’ve had winter!

Last night Rob and I fell into one of our favorite fights, idk how it happened but before we knew it we were both mad. 

That meant we woke up tired and grumpy but we had a temple day scheduled and we still wanted to go. It was rainy and the temple is far away. We got spoiled in Orlando.

Anyway, we were up with the sun. Drove two hours to VA and had appointments to do both initiatories and an endowment. 

It was a new temple for us to visit and it is beautiful. Its always a peaceful place of inspiration and harmony and we left in better moods than we arrived. (Although tired and hungry).

It was 3pm when we left the temple and we stopped for lunch and had a nice time together.  We got home at 6:30. I am grateful it’s not farther away but its far enough that its not convenient.

 On the way home we chatted with Ruby and Coco. 

Yesterday Lana called to show me her new hat and that cuteness needed to be recorded!

Grace and Hannah are going on a sisters date to the movies to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie. They didn’t send me a picture but Jo and Kenz also went today and they are so very cute and I ❤️❤️❤️them too so they got a spot on the blog!

 I finished another semester. I cant believe how fast it is going.

I subbed in compass today. Not to toot my own horn but i am a pretty decent sub. I get compliments quite often and get requested. I don’t know what kind of analogy to make about this, its a pretty easy job, I am glad that I do it well.

Bub told me today that his job is easy. He works for the MTC. He’s working hard at school. So is Grace. She often has homework and is busy with lots of school stuff. 

We had the elders and sisters over for dinner. We always enjoy having them. It was a little quite at dinner, a little somber as we talked about the war in Israel. Its been heartbreaking to watch what is going on. We still have the war in the Ukraine going on too. I saw something on fb or somewhere about how human beings werent meant to know about every tragedy, atrocity, plague and famine on the globe. It is too sad and hard for our feeble hearts to handle. Some times it feels that way, the world can be very heavy and the difficulties of mortality are a lot.

Wednesday

 Good news: that dreaded paper that took so long to write came back with a perfect score.

Today I got to work and was asked to sub for a vice principals secretary. Which I was happy to do. This gave me a lot of time to do my own school work. WhoopWhoop!

Ezra got his halloween costume in the mail and he likes it!

We had a RS activity tonight. It was a conference game and discussion. We had 8 sisters attend, which isn’t a huhe amount but it was still a nice evening.

Day off

 I slept in, it was delighful.

Did some laundry. Had lunch with some friends. Made banana muffins and african curry with rice for dinner and watched “Happiness for Beginners”.

Speedy

Weekends go by so fast! Although I don’t have work on monday so yay!

Saturday we went to a service project. The church provided 300,000 meals for local agencies that work with families who need help. We helped bag the food.

After that we went and bought a tree, grocery shopped, I was worked on my paper (which is due at midnight so good or bad it will soon be done). We hung some pictures, ate a not delicious dinner and I went to a presidency meeting.

Today I have ward coorrolation, ward council, teaching RS, and a stake mission training meeting. More than usual.

Im happy to serve. 

Im behind on laundry. I need a helpful house witch! Ive been slogging through this latest paper. It has been a chore. Every sentence needs documentation. 

Ezra loves the new amazon toy catalog! So cute!

 Rubes lost two teeth in one fell swoop. She is so excited. Coco is sadly wiggling away trying to get her tooth loosened.

I had to break up a fight in class today. It was a first for me. Mostly I just felt sad because it was so stupid, some of these kids are not on a good track.

Rob got a new axe. He was splitting firework today and also split his thumb. He came running inside saying we needed to go to urgent care. It turned out to be more the shock and the blood than the actual depth of the injury that was alarming so we were able to doctor it up oursleves. That made for an eventful night! It does hurt though!