Stinky Blogger

I'm a stinky blogger these days.  Using only the few pictures that I have taken lately, I thought that I would do a quick recap on the last month or so.

#1.  Matt and I finally put up family pictures that we had taken last July.

#2. I've been substitute teaching again this year,and really like it when I get jobs in middle and high schools.  That's my favorite.  Here's a pic of me in a 7th grade science room with a view of a gorgeous autumn morning.

#3.  A dear lady that I visit teach, Vi Huber, painted a picture of the shoes of a leprosy patient in India.  She used the photograph that I had taken.  I love it!  It is a treasured gift.

#4.  My birthday came.  And this is what I got that morning.  Ugh.

#5.  But this is what I really got for my birthday.  Thanks Natalie!

#6.  No pictures of my beautiful grey cashmere sweater from my thoughtful husband, but this little machine made its way into our home right around my birthday too.  Everyone in the fam is happy to have this gem.

#7.  I got a new calling as the 1st counselor in the Relief Society presidency and I'm over the extra RS meetings.  I got this calling right before our RS Christmas dinner.  The theme was Christmas Around the World.  I was asked to decorate a table and of course I chose India.  I decided to decorate with photographs of women we had taken pictures of when we were there.  I used my tapestry and that of a friend's that we both bought when there.  Simplicity=India.

#8. We bought a live tree this year for Christmas.  It was soooo cold the day we went out to get it.  It was a quick decision.  Emma chose a beautiful, short tree that was snow covered.  I wish that I had snapped a pic of it before the snow was shaken off and laid down to have its trunk cut.  

#9.  Speaking of snow... After our run in the fresh snow, Matt braved the bitter cold some more to shovel our big driveway and then help a neighbor do hers.

That's all I have folks!  Maybe I will be better at posting from now on.  Or maybe not.  

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)...

Random Ragnar and Other Pics

Matt and I ran the Wasatch Back Relay again this past June.  It was its 10th anniversary.  Our team name this year was Runnin' Happy.  We had a mix of family members and friends.  We had a sweaty, sleepless, happy ol' time!

VAN #1

VAN #2

Matt tackling the mountain

Pushing up the Ragnar Hill

Happy to be finished!

Other summer happenings...

Emma's 12th birthday party at the archery range.

 Josh turns 17 and gets a job.

Chelsea spends her summer getting ready for her mission and turns 19.

Back to school for Emma (7th grade) and Josh (senior).

Seattle Family Trip

I gotta throw a post together because I haven't written anything this whole month of July.  I haven't skipped a month since I started this little blog of mine, so I can't miss one now!

So I will tell you a bit about our recent family vacation to Washington.  We decided to go to Seattle this year because our plans to go to San Diego fell flat when Chelsea got her mission call to Southern California.  Even though she has been there before (hello!  we lived there for 3 years), we didn't want to ruin the "newness" of it for her by vacationing near where she will be serving.  So we thought of other fun places that we could visit that are in a day's driving distance.  I've wanted to go back to the Seattle area for a long time, and since the kids had never been there and our friends, the Hammers, just moved there, Seattle became our destination.

I love planning our trips.  This one fell together nicely.

Day 1 Drive to Snoqualmie, dinner with Hammers, visit Snoqualmie Falls, see their new house.

Day 2 Hard but fun morning run through the woods with Hammers, awesome afternoon hike up to Rattlesnake Ledge, swimming underwater with my eyes open at the hotel pool (feeling like a kid again),  ate some serious pizza at Serious Pie downtown Seattle, added gum to the "Gum Wall", 10:30 pm up the Space Needle

Day 3 Drive to Mukilteo for a really interesting Boeing tour (no pics could be taken in the hangers where they build the airplanes), seafood lunch at Ivars, 1 1/2 hour wait to get on ferry to my old stomping ground Whidbey Island, found my old house and school in Oak Harbor, skipped rocks at Deception Pass, dinner and sleep in Anacortes

There's my beach (photo taken from below the bridge)

My beautiful girls

My kids skipping and collecting rocks in the same place I did 30 years ago

My fam at Deception Pass

Remembering the days of being eight years old and running around this very spot

Eclectic (and spendy) food at Adrift

Day 4 Walk onto ferry to San Juan Island- Friday Harbor, BBQ lunch, 3 hour super cool whale watching adventure with Western Prince on their "Western Exporer" coast guard-like boat, ferry 1 1/2 hours back to Anacortes' Ships Harbor Inn all worn out

Getting off the ferry at Friday Harbor

We looked pretty funny in these suits, but we stayed warm out on the water

Here's the company owner, Captain Ivan

There's our awesome naturalist, JB, standing up behind me

Thanks to Ivan, the Captain, we have some good pics of the wildlife we watched. He had the right lens to capture the action up close.  He emailed us the following six pictures of our excursion that day.  Watching the eagles fighting in the air (over who had dibs on the seal carcass on the rocks) was so cool.  I'm glad Ivan got those memorable pics.  We found the whales up in Canadian waters.  We followed them for an hour.

Emma taking in view of the ferry from Ships Harbor Inn

 Day 5 Enjoyed scenery while driving south to Seattle, had a blast seeing "Seattle By Segway" 1 1/2 hour tour, walked around Pike Place Market, enjoyed watching the Mariners play the Indians and ate yummy ballpark food

That's one happy guy!

Matt loved keeping score in his new score book

Day 6 We had a great brunch at Issaquah Cafe and then said good-bye to the greenery and drove home to brown Meridian.  It's nice to be home, though.  Home is where ever we are together.  I could live anywhere, really.  There's good and bad to every place.  I'm grateful for all of the moving around the country that I have experienced.  I'm glad I have been able to go back to most of those towns.  Maybe next summer we can go back to Colorado Springs.  Garden of the Gods sounds fun.  Hmmmm.  I think the planning has begun!