Halloween Festivities

The beginning of October and the costumes box was raided by our kids. Belle found the Zombie mask and decided she would re-wear her Dorothy costume from last year. She even had a skull in her basket to take the place of Toto. Zack found the claws and decided that it would be fun to be the Grim Reaper.

Katie and Becky opted to spend their gift cards to buy new costumes. Becky had gotten a black Webkin for her birthday and decided a witch costume would be fun to buy. Katie wanted to be a Fairy of Woodland Creature to go along with her Bunny Webkin.

Friday at the kid's school was the Halloween Parade. It was fun to see all the kids in costumes. Definitely Dorothy is a big favorite again this year.

Last night was our Ward Halloween Party. We started with a soup dinner. Then each family made a tombstone to help in getting to know each other's families (Our boundaries have changed, so we only know half the people in our ward right now) Zack took charge of making ours and Belle read it to everyone. Once this activity was done, the parents went out to their trunks and prepared for the trick-o-treaters. I had hung Christmas lights in my trunk and a even set up a little skeleton. I really love watching all the little kids come around and ask for their treats. It definitely was a good time.

SCRAPAWAY

On Thursday I packed up all of scrapping stuff (3 rolling bags, my tools case, a hard tote and 2 other bags) and my friend Suzanne picked me up and we were off to Heber for SCRAPAWAY. There is this cabin that a woman rents out. She has tables set up for scrapping, beds to sleep in and meals are provided. Sandra and some of her friends had planned this get away in the beginning of the year and extended the invitation to Suzanne, me and some of the other ladies in the neighborhood.

Once we got all of our gear up the stairs to the loft area where we would be scrapping, Suzanne and I got to work. I wanted to finish up the Mesa Verde album I had started in July after our trip there and I also wanted to make a tribute album of my father-in-law. I brought TONS of projects to work on and planned to take advantage of my uninterrupted scrapping time.

On Saturday night everyone took a break from our focused scrapbooking to just be silly. Some of Sandra's friends are just "nuts", but I loved it. It reminded me of my girls in Maine and the silliness we use to have together. There was some impromptu gymnastics, reenactments of Saturday Night Live Skits, and silly photos

Our hostess, Marcie, prepared all of our meals and just SPOILED us. She had a little dinner bell that she would ring when everything was ready to go. It seriously was like eating in a restaurant: yummy food, beverage of your choice, and you did not have to do the dishes...WHooHoooo!!!! She was just the nicest lady and seemed to enjoy putting these events on. There were all sorts of goodies to snack on if we should happen to get the munchies.

In the 2 nights we were there I think Suzanne and I slept about 8 hours. The first night we went to bed about 4:00 am and rised out of bed at 7:45 am, brushed my teeth and went back to work. Then we stayed up with Sandra the second night until after 4:00 am chatting and laughing. Then I awoke on Saturday morning at 8:00 am and tried to get a little more scrapbooking done before I had to pack everything up to come home to Steve and the kids.

It snowed the morning we were to leave our little retreat. It cleared up just in time for us to drive off the mountain. It was such a fun weekend. I met some very nice women, got to know Suzanne and Sandra a little better. They are both the sweetest girls and I am so grateful for the weekend we got to spend together.

First Snow of the Season

Every Saturday for the past month it has been rainy and a couple of those days it even snowed a little, but did not really stick. This morning as I walked down the stairs I heard Christmas music playing on the stereo. And as I walk toward the back door what did I see? My yard covered in a blanket of snow. It was beautiful but I am not sure I am ready to put away the capris and flip flops.

The kids were so excited for the snow this morning that they ate their breakfast and then went out to the garage to find the snow suits, gloves and boots. Then out they went to have a snowball fight. Katie rolled a large snowball and left it in a shaded area of the yard to preserve her treasure while we were at church.

It was a beautiful and fresh morning. Most of the snow has melted now and all that are left are the few snapshots I took this morning and our anticipation of more snow in the up coming months.

Katie's Harvest

This year Katie has developed a green thumb. It all started with her tomatoes. Steve bought each of the children a tomato plant. Katie was the one that was so intune with tending her pant. The first thing she would do when she came home from school was go out and water her plants. She was the first one to get tomatoes off her plant.

Then a few weeks ago I walked out our back garage door and saw this HUGE pumpkin vine that had taken over that section of the yard. Lo and Behold, under all the leaves and vines was the biggest pumpkin I had even seen grown in our yard. Later I found out that it was Katie's. Steve had given her a couple of seeds and and this is what they had produced.

YOWZERS!!!

I have loved seeing the pride she as in her accomplishment. We have put the pumpkin into our front yard so it can orange up. Katie has talked about wanting to carve her treasure. Watch for the next blog entry...

Steve's Marathon

Our friend, Brian, told Steve that he should try to run in the St. George Marathon, that the course was great and different from the course that Steve had ran in Salt Lake. So in May Steve registered to run in the St. George Marathon. He began to train, but in July he began to have problems with his hip. As October 6 began to approach, the problem had not completely subsided and within a week or two of the marathon we began to wondered whether we should cancel our hotel reservations.

Well, yesterday was October the 6th and we had driven to St.George the day before. Steve's hip had been feeling relatively fine, but we were not sure how his hip would take 26.2 miles. He woke up at 4:00 am and met our friends Brian and Suzanne in the front of our hotel to get a ride to the starting line. I slept another hour and then got dressed and brought my iPod and a book to the finish line and found a spot on a bleacher to spend the next 2 1/2 hours as I waited for Steve to cross the finish line.

His time for the Salt Lake Marathon had been 3:29, so because of Steve's injury and lack of preparation for this race I was not expecting him to cross until after 3 1/2 hours. As we rounded the 3 hour point I began to keep my eyes open for our friends Brian and Suzanne. Then at 3:14, as I was scanning the runners there he was. I was shocked!! I SCREAMED his name a couple of times and then yelled, "I LOVE YOU!!" He kind of turned my way, but still kept focus on the finish line.

When I finally met up with him, he was spent. Almost seemed a little dazed. I would talk to him and it was almost like he couldn't comprehend what I was saying. I think he was proud of himself, but also questioning whether he was crazy for doing this.

I was so proud of him!! his finishing time was 3:14:55, this gives him a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon (by 5 seconds)...so who knows, maybe in April 2008 I will be blogging his results from Boston.

A Double Baptism

Where has the time gone? My "babies" Katie and Becky turned 8 years old just a few weeks ago. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I had spent 3 1/2 weeks in the hospital waiting for their arrival. And then the came with their little hospital beanies on. The nurses had written Katherine and Rebecca on the caps so we could keep them straight. They were so little and beautiful. I knew that they would be depending on me for so much. And now those little girls are 8 and were so excited to be baptized and officially become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

They came downstairs about 40 minutes before the baptism was to begin, dressed in the white jumpers that the Primary had brought over for us to use. They had this twinkle of excitement in their eyes. I tied their hair back with a white little ribbon so their hair would not float up.

Once at the church we said hello to some of the friends that were there. Because the baptism was happening in the middle of the week, some of our friends had other commitments and could not attend. One very special friend came in a t-shirt and jeans. I know she felt awkward of her appearance, but her appearance meant the world to me. My mother and father both spoke to the girls about baptism and confirmation and they did such an awesome job.

Their primary teacher put together a DVD of pictures and the girl's favorite primary song playing. I just boobed through the whole thing. The 2 photos that hit me like a punch in the gut was 1st a picture of Zack, Belle, Katie and Becky laying on the floor. the girls are not quite 1 years old and Zack and Belle have that baby fat, toddler look to them. Then at the end of the DVD was a photo from a few months ago on the first day of school. They looked so grown up. And I sat their trying to figure out where all the time had gone.

Chocolate Shakes & Onion Rings

On October 3, 1993, I had gone to Incahoots after work. I was hoping to see Steve there. We needed a chance to talk and a dance club is not a great place to have a conversation, so we drove over to a little diner named Kooky's because I was craving onion rings and a shake. We walked in, place our order and began to chat. We got back into my little red Paseo and drove back over to Incahoots and sat in the parking lot and finished our conversation. I said I need to go home and eat my onion rings and shake and Steve needed to go back into the club because his brother was in there. BUT before he got out of the car he turned to me and said, "should I tell Shelly I have a girlfriend?" (Shelly was a girl that was interested in him and he had spent some time hanging out with) And I said, "Yes, you should tell her you have a girlfriend." And then I drove away.

We now try to celebrate the date that Steve and I began dating exclusively by going somewhere and buying chocolate shakes and onion rings. The kids have even gotten into it. They know exactly what we mean when we mention onion rings and shakes. It is a fun little tradition that means the world to me. It is pretty yummy too!!