Chili Cook-Off At Church

Months ago I was asked to be in charge of putting together a ward adult dinner.  I didn't really have much help, but after asking a few of my ward friends, it finally came together.  I'm really glad I decided to do a chili cook-off because most of the food was brought by ward members.  I didn't have to figure out how to cook a bunch of pulled pork or whatever.  I don't think our ward has had a chili cook-off in quite a few years, so it was well received.  But then we all realized that the dinner was falling on the Saturday after General Conference (not able to remind people at church) and also on a four day weekend for families with school children (some families left town that otherwise would have attended) and also there was a BSU football game on that same night.  But, we had a decent turn-out anyway.  At least it was worth the effort I (and my helpers) put into it.  I'm glad to be able to check this off my to-do list.

Here are some pictures I took at the beginning of the evening.  Not shown is the "harvest share table" for people to drop off any excess garden produce and also not shown is the "guess who" game of original 5th ward members.

the tasters cups were a great idea

awesome pumpkins for decor on tables and floor

I went with a chalk board theme (I got crafty) for the signs for various tables

paper table runners to cover most of the red tablecloths

voting jars where people dropped in dry beans in their top 3 favorites

corn muffins and honey butter

We Are Missionary Parents!

I didn't write in September.  I broke my blogging streak.  Darn it.

A big event even happened that month, and I missed writing about it.  So I will post a little bit about it.
Our sweet 19 year old daughter left to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She has been at the CCM, or the MTC, in Mexico City for the past six weeks.  Today she flew to California where she will be serving in the Ventura California Mission teaching in spanish.  We are so very proud of our girl.  She has loved the CCM and has been blessed as she has been learning more of the spanish language and also how to be an effective missionary for Jesus Christ.  She loved her companion that she had while there, Hermana White.  They got along wonderfully.  Chelsea was able to attend the Mexico City Temple three times during her stay there.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend before she left when she spoke in church and had many family members come to support her and say good-bye.

And here are a few that she has sent to us from Mexico City MTC (or CCM)...