Family Halloween Pumpkin Patch Day

Corn maze.

This baby pig, and all its sisters and brothers, were only hours old.

Born only hours before we got to the farm.

Hay jumping.

8th grade art homework....

Isn't it funny how somethings are hard to get rid of.

One was my 8th grade self portrait.

Painted when I was 14 years old.

I kept it for years.

I worked really hard on it.

I used my 7th grade picture as my template.

The assignment was to paint a self portrait and have it reflect your heritage.

Therefore, windmills in the background.

Mine ended up looking like mini mills popping out of my head.

A couple of years ago, in one of my ongoing spats to get organized, I decided to take pictures of artwork, trophies, etc. and then get rid of them.

Seriously, it is weird to have your elementary Reflections trophies on a shelf.

People we must move on.

So I did.

I came across this picture of the picture, as I was, of course, trying to get organized.

On another organization spat.

I still like it.

Windmills and all.

It isn't that it is so art worthy but more the fact that it represented

something I worked hard on.

That I tried my best.

And was happy with the results.

How to feel that way with everything I do would definitely be mastering the art of living.

Something worth holding onto.

Scared Silly Eggs

My mom sent up this cute Halloween magazine.

Of course, tons of fabulous ideas.

So Sunday we made up a couple plates of "Jolly Roger" scared silly, skeleton eggs.

Of course the kids literally "ate it up."

Next time, I need to remember sliced pimentos, not diced pimentos.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Big, fat, short, tall, squarish, roundish, we've been to lots of them, and this one close by the mall.

All sorts of pumpkin patches that is.

Today, we went to Mosby Brother's Farms Pumpkin Field with Makenzy's preschool class.

I purchased, corn, pumpkins, Halloween themed candy and hay ride.

Tacked on 3 bosc pears.

Makenzy and friend had a few complimentary bites,

prior to my realizing what the little girls were up to.

Preschool Class. Six

Big Brother/Sister Helpers. Two.

Mom helper. One.

Not pictured. 4 other mom helpers. 2 baby brothers and 1 baby sister.

Love this display behind us. Cayleb is loving his candy stick wedged in between his cheeks.


Tag spot. Lunch spot. Resting spot.
Out little tots are really getting into preschool.
Thanks ladies so much for jumping in with me and doing our preschool co-op.

Tina is a thinker. Halloween shaped pretzels for the hay ride.
The day was beautiful.
Blue skies. Sun. Crisp autumn air.

Rain starts tomorrow.
Wish I could say, "boo" and make it go away.

Student BBQ

Can't see them all.

Piano is playing.

Elder Kato is sitting up the door singing.

A few in the backyard playing b-ball.

Having the "Meyer's Way" group over for a little bbq.

Can see their awesome personalities.

Can see their respect for Randy.

Can see their testimonies.

Love having all of you over.

Meyers Way.

U-Dub students.

YSA.

Married couples.

Your energy and commitment to full, gospel oriented lives always

infuses me with admiration for the "rising generation".

Third generation...

Cheerleader.

Grandma Brusik. Jordan.

Me. Hillcrest.

Makayla. Tahoma.

(Aunt Nikki. Alta.)

And surprisingly a lot of the cheers are still the same 40 years later.

"Who rocks the house?"

Just about every jr. high and high school across America.

Since my photo is "no good", I'll identify. She is the one in the middle with her poms up.

And "yeah" we definitely think cheer leading is a sport.

There is a lot of time put into it.

In my opinion, every kid, every adult needs some hobby or some activity outside school, work, or family. Parental biases aside, which of course I have, she really is good.

She's good because she loves cheering.

Just for fun, I pulled out my old cheer leading outfit and poms.

Original cost $350.

1 outfit we kept.

1 stayed at school.

Sixteen years later my sweater uniform has found its home in the Halloween costume box.

When I hold it up, I think it fits.

In the far corner of my closet, is my wedding dress.

I think it fits too.

Weird, but they stand as my measuring stick of how much my body has

changed since having kids. And my love of sweets. And my quasi exercising. And my erratic healthy eating habits.

I think they fit.

Makayla. Cheer leading.

They fit.

Conference Weekend

I didn't grow up having to watch conference on Saturdays. A session on Sunday was the accepted minimum.

My mom usually watched Saturday sessions while folding clothes. Just hearing the Mormon Tab choir blaring from the t.v. turned to an unusually high volume, bugged me. Little did I know my future mother in law was belting it out in the alto section at the time. A guilty feeling penetrated our home on Saturday mornings. We knew we should be watching. We knew it was important. We knew mom wanted us to be in there with her. But she didn't want to force it. She wanted it to come to us on our own. She was a convert and I think felt that because she didn't grow up having to watch it, it wasn't fair to force us to. Perhaps hoping that the "light of Christ" would eventually draw us in to listen.

And where was Dad? At work. At his second job. Little did I know, he most likely had conference tuned in on his patrol car radio.

But in my mind, and I'll take liberty to include my siblings, conference weekend was a welcomed holiday from church. A break. A vacation. A bummer it only came twice a year.

So I've carried this guilty-negative association with Conference for a long time.

When I got married it started to change. When I had kids it changed even more.

Now I really need the counsel.

This Saturday and Sunday......

Makayla traced my face with a pen cap and gave me a back rub for the duration of 3 General Conference speakers. That's about 45 min. Cayden gave me another 7 for a bet about homework that I won with him and another 5 for making him hot chocolate.

Makayla said it was payback for all the times in the morning I've tickled her back to wake her up for school or have helped her with homework. Primarily geometry. I am a pretty lousy math tutor.

She is learning to speak Teen, luckily not as well as some other teens, and I still speak Momincharge. Fortunately we speak the same language most of the time.

The talks were great. As always, great messages. Randy, quoting someone else, said that following a great talk there are three things you should do:

1 - recognize what you are doing that is right and KEEP DOING IT.
2 - recognize what you should stop doing and STOP.
3 - recognize what you should start doing and START.

So we will keep having lots of special treats like bowls of m & m's, cream puffs, licorice, cookies, and big delicious Pancake House breakfasts etc. We will keep conference bingo, coloring pictures of apostles, lots of Friend magazines to fill in and cut up, church coloring pages etc. Keep back tickling in the mix. I need to stop staying up late at night so I am not tired during the day. I need to start keeping a journal of my feelings and thoughts about conference talks. So I am starting.