I'm thankful for...

Thanksgiving! It's one of my favorite holidays. We had it at my house this year with my parents and two of my brothers so it was a small group but we had a good time together. Nothing like great food and great company to make an occasion special.

An eventful weekend

Last weekend was a pretty busy one. It started when I came home from shopping and went to put the Thanksgiving turkey in the freezer. I opened the door and realized that things were on the squishy side. Sigh...the door had not been closed tightly, again. I finally decided to drag in the garbage can and clean out the freezer, a task we've been putting off for at least a year! Since I didn't know what was good and what wasn't it all went into the garbage can. I'm hoping that they will pick it up and not leave us a nasty note that the can is too heavy! Anyway, after I finished emptying it out I spent the rest of Friday afternoon and evening trying to defrost the freezer. I tried steaming it, letting the sun shine into the freezer, chipping it out and finally concluded that the fastest way was to pour hot water in the freezer over and over again until the ice finally melted. What a pain! But I will say this, there is nothing like the feeling of pride you get when you look at a dreaded, difficult job well done! I looked at my nice clean freezer (a fringe benefit of all the water!) with my lonely turkey sitting in it and I wanted to take a picture but I thought that might be going a little to far. Oh well!

Saturday morning was a lot more fun. Bob kept the rest of the kids while Grace and I went with some friends to see Twilight. It was a good show in spite of being low budget and a little bit cheesy! I enjoyed it and except for a few minutes in the middle of the movie, Grace was really good. After the show we went and got some lunch to fuel our analysis of the show and had a great time chatting. So, other than an embarrassing episode of wandering around the parking garage trying to find my car (I guess in our excitement to catch up to the other half of our group and go see this fine movie we forgot to pay attention to where we parked - Oops!) we had a great time! It's always fun to have a girls day out!

Sunday we got up and somehow we made it on time for church, I'm amazed that the building didn't fall down! It turned out it was a good thing we were on time because during the announcements the stake representative got up and made an "announcement of interest" that included announcing Bob was going to be ordained as a High Priest during Priesthood meeting. The bishop had talked to Bob about making him a H.P. several weeks ago (geez, that makes both of us feel OLD!) but there were no detail such as when. So when the first speaker got up Bob skipped out of the rest of Sacrament Meeting to try and track down his Dad to do the ordination. He was successful and it was a very nice ordination. Poor Bob, when the whole things was over with he told me "I guess that I have to get a suit now!". I know he's not looking forward to it, but I have to admit that I am. I think he will look very FINE in a nice suit! Love you Honey!

My baby is growing up!

This week had been a busy one for Gracie. Sunday night she rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time. Then a few minutes later she rolled the other way, from her tummy to her back! She has also become really interested in things around her. She loves to try and grab toys or whatever she can get hold of and of course they all go straight to her mouth. Then on Thursday she tried her first solid food - rice cereal, yum! She really seems to like it and tries to grab the spoon and shove it in her mouth whenever it gets close to her!I'm not sure I'm ready for my sweet little baby to grow up so fast! But ready or not, here she goes!

Maddie's first piano recital

Maddie had her first piano recital last night. She started taking lessons from Isabelle Stringham in September after school had started. I'm amazed how quickly she is learning and it's wonderful to see her learning to play on the same piano that I did.

Maddie played a piece called Black Cats Waltzing. It had a duet that went with it that she had me play with her. It was fun to do. She quickly had the piece memorized but I can't say the same. Oh well. She did a great job and really got a kick out of playing on the yellow piano. Way to go Maddie!

Honesty

Tonight Grace and I took Maddie to the store to get a new coat. When we got to the store I put my wallet and Grace in her car seat in the cart and away we went. We didn't have any luck finding a coat so we put the cart away and went to another store. When we got there my heart fell when I went to get my wallet and realized that I had left it in the cart at the first store. We drove back as fast as we could, it had only been about 15 minutes but my wallet was nowhere to be seen. I checked with the cashiers but nobody had turned it in. All I could do was leave my name and phone number and go home and wait. I was so nervous and worried. Not only did I have some cash in my wallet, but my driver license, a credit and debit card, a Costco cash card with two weeks of gas money on it and all of our insurance cards. I was worried about the cash but I was much more worried about my driver license and the possibility of ID theft. What a world we live in! Maddie and I said a prayer as soon as we were back in the car that whoever found the wallet would be honest and turn it in. We went home and waited for a while before Bob and I decided to call the bank and had them put a hold on our cards. It was scary to think that in that moment all of our assets were locked up. We can't use our credit or debit cards and I couldn't even go to the bank and withdraw any cash because I had no ID! I never realized how much of my life I carry in my wallet! I couldn't even go to the library and get a book! It was such a helpless feeling topped off with fears of what future ramifications there might be if we didn't get it back.

We worried and stewed but thankfully it wasn't too long before a knock came at the door. There was a stranger who said his name was Carlos and he asked for me. When I came he reached into his coat and pulled out my wallet! He had found it at the store and since he works for Comcast and is familiar with the area he decided to return it to our home instead of the store. He gave it back to me with everything still inside of it, undisturbed. I was so relieved I could have kissed him. I tried to give him some cash for his help but he refused. Instead he shook all of our hands very warmly and disappeared into the night. I didn't realize how much worry I was really carrying until it was lifted and I could breathe again. We said a prayer of thanksgiving for an answered prayer and life got back to normal.

This experience has really made me stop and think about honesty and how important it really is. When we first realized that my wallet was missing Maddie was worried that somebody would accidentally buy it. It was kind of sad for me to explain to her that there are people who would take it and keep it instead of returning it. She is so innocent that I don't think that idea had occurred to her. Once it had she was so worried that she cried all the way home and off and on until it was returned. Honesty is necessary for a good community and I believe that most people are honest. It's sad that a few dishonest people have to make the rest of us wonder wether we can trust each other or not. It made me stop and wonder how honest I am and if there is room for improvement, I think there always is. I think that honesty in the little things we do and say, as well as the big things make a difference, even if nobody else knows. We do and that's what is important. So thank you Carlos, wherever you are for being honest, an answer to a prayer and a reminder to me and my family that honesty is truly important.

Election Results

Tuesday night was kind of a tense one. I went to vote that morning and then Bob went after he got home from work. After the polls closed at 8:00 he went out to collect all of his lawn signs while I watched the results come in on the internet (I just watched the local stuff on the internet, I couldn't take the presidential stuff all over the TV). He would call every few minutes for an update. In the end Bob got 573 votes or 4.5% of all votes cast. When he ran two years ago he got just over 3%. It was kind of sad, we were hoping for more because of all the work and money that went into his campaign this time around. Bob has been quite down about losing because he is so passionate about politics and he really wants to make a difference. I guess he'll have to figure out a different way to do it, but if anyone can do that, it's Bob!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was such a fun day. The kids looked really cute in their costumes. Maddie’s costume started out as a vampire. She had a long black wig to go with it but it was itchy so she decided to be a “Fair Maiden” instead. Jeni was a witch again, no big surprise since she has been a witch 4 out of the 6 Halloweens she has been around for. I was able to fix Nathan’s costume so he enjoyed being the Dragon and Grace was really cute as a little Jack-O-Lantern.

Friday turned out to be one big Halloween party! It started early when Maddie and Jeni got up and put on their costumes and away they went to school. We got Nathan dressed up in his Dragon costume and then we met the girls at school for the Halloween Parade and Carnival that the 7th and 8th grades put on. They had all sorts of game booths, treats and prizes. It was lots of fun.

After the carnival we brought the kids home and had a couple of hours before we started with trick-or-treating. The weather has been so nice and warm (mid 70’s) so I sent the kids out to play with their friends until it was time to go. This is the first Halloween I can remember where we took sweaters with us just in case it got cold but we didn’t need them. I love it! Anyway, first we went to all the Grandma’s and Grandpa’s and then to a couple of friends.

Then we took the kids around the neighborhood and ward and finally finished up at the Wright’s where we enjoyed popcorn balls and wassail, good company and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. After that we took our grumpy, sugar-high kids home and collapsed into bed. All in all it was a very fine day. Happy Halloween!