good time had by all...

working backwards:

Saturday night Glen was involved in a murder mystery play "Reno: 1930" where he played Hammond Agze (pronounced Ham 'n Eggs). His sister, Teresa, went with me to this fund raiser for CAPS (Churchill Animal Protection Society). Besides the play, there was an excellent all-you-can-eat buffet catered by Suzie's BBQ. Teresa and I both pinned the murders on the wrong character, but that's OK because it was a lot of fun. It would have looked bad if I had won anyway...

[if the photo turns out that Teresa took of Glen and me, it'll go here]

I had asked Eric about Salt Lake looking "autumn-y." Eric sent this picture. I think he took it himself, but there's a chance his companion took it. I love it and think I need a print for my wall of it.

I know these next 2 photos were taken by Eric's companion:

too bad part of Moroni is cut off, or I might have wanted a print of this for my wall, too

Friday night was the ward's Trunk or Treat night. Alex won the most original costume. He came up with the idea by himself--he's holding lemons, in case you can't tell. Pretty clever. You can't really see my earrings very well, but I was quite pleased with them--I used shrinky dinks to make greenwave earrings to go with my Pep Club member costume.

I made cupcakes for the cake walk. I looked up halloween cupcakes on pinterest and chose this idea:

mummy cupcakes that kind of remind me on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

And one of my favorite costumes was a mother and her newborn dressed up as a spider web and spider:

Thursday night was the One Act Play competition with Glen's students directing Junior High kids. It was a lot of fun. There's some good talent coming up in the next year or two.

I was able to take a few walks this week. I brought my camera along to get some photos of fall. This is my favorite. I think I need a print of this photo for my wall, too:

Eric will be home in a month and other family news

We received the letter from Eric's mission President. It's official now. We pick Eric up on November 19th and his family history mission will be at an end. I'm happy and sad at the same time. What a great place for Eric to be, but I miss him, so it'll be great to see him again.

Alex, having just turned 14, attend his first church dance last night. Since it is October, he could wear a costume, if he wanted. Hannah tried to convince him to wear his pajamas, shape his hair in the front, and go up to girls and say that he was the man of their dreams. No big surprise, but he refused and didn't dress up at all.

He was  a bit nervous, but it seems he had a good time. He danced with 6 different girls...5 of whom asked him to dance (thanks girls!!!) and the 6th one, well, someone he doesn't know dragged him over to a girl he didn't know, so Alex asked her if she wanted to dance and she said yes. Too funny.

Our library is about to go through a big remodeling, so when you check out books this month you have the option to keep them until next March so they don't have to pack them up and store them while the building is under construction. Alex and I have our winter reading all lined up. I have 3 books on gingerbread houses, two on emergency preparedness, one each on making stained glass items, on making beaded jewelry, and on how to do family history research on the internet. I also borrowed 3 Harry Potter books in Spanish, one mystery novel (A Crossword to Die For--it has several crosswords sprinkled throughout the book), and 4 non-fiction books. One of them is Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World (my dad worked for Chiquita for 30 years, so I had to get that one). Another book is Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes, which is a book I read years ago. Then there's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and also Hungry for Change: Ditch the Diets, Conquer the Cravings, and Eat Your Way to Lifelong Health that are in my home now. I'm excited to read them all. Glad I have until March to do so.

Yesterday, to celebrate a friend's birthday, a few of us went to Reno to the craft fair at McQueen High School. We had a great time. There were a ton of gorgeous and delicious things. I usually don't buy things, but this time I did. I love quails and am always on the lookout for them. I found this fused glass quail that I thought was adorable. I also found a family tree picture to put on our wall.

Happy 14th Birthday Alex!

Yep, my baby is now 14. Old enough to go to Church dances. Whether he'll dance or not is another story. He is now as tall as I am, which means he's about 3" taller than his sister. Happy Birthday Alex. We're so glad that you are a part of our family!

It was a glorious week for me as I only subbed one day instead of 5. I got some housework done and started scrapbooking again. I hope to start up my family history research again this next week.

Glen's students put on the play "Anne of Green Gables" and did a great job. It was quite amusing, though a few students still need to learn to project their voices. I've never read the books, but seeing the play makes me think I just might pick them up and give them a try.

And, that seems to be it for the news from us this week. Everything else continues on as it has been. Have a great week everyone.

this past week, the new barn is up and running, and General Conference

We found out on Tuesday that Ryan was getting transferred out of New Orleans. Normally we don't know until the following week where he wound up, but apparently the office workers were very efficient and changed the companionships on the mission's webpage ahead of time, so Ryan found out he was going to Lafayette, which is about an hour west of  Baton Rouge. We'll find out tomorrow exactly where he is. One of the cool things is--our friend Jiaxin had met Ryan's new companion, Elder Jean Louis from Haiti, while they (Jiaxin and Elder Jean Louis) were in the MTC. Wow.

Another exciting happening from last week is that we got our computer back from the shop. I can now post photos again. :)

Zach, Landon, and Stephanie at the Ogden Temple Open House

me, Zach, and Denise inside the museum at Hill Air Force Base

Denise, me, Andrew, and Heather in the BYU bookstore

Haley and Matt

they started milking in the new dairy barn on Tuesday!

60 cows can be milked at once (it was only 20 in the old barn)

Last week was my last week subbing for Mrs. A. I enjoyed the job and am very grateful that I could work since we had extra bills in August. I will also enjoy and be grateful for a little time at home this week to clean the house, work on family history, go to the temple, and work on seminary without having such a time crunch.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, there are just a few "best" days of the year, two are at Christmas time and the others deal with General Conference. Conference seems to get better every time.

Having said that, I'm going to add that Conference just isn't the same as it used to be in our house. Hannah worked on Saturday and then on Sunday she watched the sessions in at the church with an investigator (since we don't have satellite, we crowd around our computer to watch and that didn't seem the best for inviting someone over, although we've done that before). We chose our words to look for during conference (hope, wisdom, covenant, mother, civil-that's Eric for you, box-that's Eric's companion for you, pure, temple, high, potato-that's Geoff for you, and story), and we had our bowl of skittles, but it was just kind of a calmer affair than it used to be with just Glen, Alex, and me being here. It was still great, though.

Now, while there wasn't a single talk I didn't enjoy, benefit from, and like, there are a few that really stood out. These will be the ones that will be first for me to watch and read again:

Last Saturday's Women's Broadcast-
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf "Living the Gospel Joyful"

Saturday Morning session-
Elder Lynn G. Robbins "Which Way Do You Face?"

Saturday Afternoon session-
Elder Jorg Klebingat "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence"

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland "Seek Opportunities to Care for the Poor"

Priesthood Session-
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf "Lord, Is It I?"

Sunday Morning session-this session was a bit different in that I liked all the talks, but none of them had me saying "wow" the entire time the speaker was talking. If I did pick just one talk that I will probably go back and review before the others, it would be:

Sister Carol F. McConkie "Live According to the Words of the Prophets"

Sunday Afternoon session-this session was a bit different in that I would put just about all the talks on the list. Fabulous session. Which will I read before the others? Probably:

Elder Richard G. Scott "Make the Exercise of Your Faith Your First Priority"

Elder M. Russell Ballard "Stay in the Boat and Hold On!"

There was a fascinating article in the Deseret News this past week that dealt with a topic that several conference speakers mentioned. The article is titled: Too Old? Out of Touch? LDS prophets and apostles engage globally to stay informed, connected and relevant


So, it was a great weekend and we're looking forward to a great week as Alex turns 14 on Friday. He'll be old enough to go to church dances! Wow. Mind boggling.