October and November 2010

Yeah...no change in how far I am behind in my life. Pretty much I keep humming Christmas songs and it's March. So here's another attempt to fill in (and these will be short and sweet) . ;)



The kids on Halloween. Joel Luigi, Josh Mario and Brynna a Bee. Our Primary does the Trunk or Treat and while we did make it in time for the important parts, we had a soccer game right before so it was a busy day.


For Thanksgiving this year we headed down to AZ and traded our Subaru for this lovely beast we named Penelope. It's a 1991 Caprice Classic and hopefully will survive to be Brynna's car. We ended up having it painted, covering the dash and putting in a new sound system when we got home.


Josh at my parents' house over Thanksgiving. It was the first time we'd been to AZ for Thanksgiving since before Brynna was born. We had a lot of fun, including my boys helping to set up (and fix) the train at my parents' house.

On our way home from AZ to CO Penelope decided to die. We think it was something about the gas tank because nothing was actually wrong with it, however we were stuck in a really kind of shabby hotel during an incoming snowstorm and thankfully our amazingly awesome friends the Armitsteads, came to our rescue and drove down from Denver to Walsenburg to bring us home! We picked up Penelope later that week and so far she's held in there.

Brynna's Christmas present (early!) We spent about a week picking out and testing violins for Brynna. Interestingly many of the 'older' violins had the most beautiful tone. She had a few she really liked, but settled on a German/Czech one that we don't know how old it is, but it's definitely been around for a while. It has been such an improvement for her.

Thanksgiving

Yeah I know, that was MONTHS ago! Poor neglected blog. ;)

I am happy to report that we had a very nice Thanksgiving, shared a fabulous meal with our wonderful friends the Dunnings up at the cabin and had power the whole time! Well, I think McKaylynn got caught in the shower when the pump turned off, but mostly we had all we needed. Good friends, good food, good times! We love the Dunning family and we felt so blessed to get to share a holiday with them.



All the kids went out and played in the snow, sledding and freezing and generally being very silly. We only had a few times when they biffed it, Josh got a nice bruise on his thigh, but other than being cold once they were done, it was a grand time had by all.


The Dunnings had to head home and of course, something immediately went wrong with our portable/small generator! Here's the boys attempting to take it apart. We ended up hauling it down for repairs, again. The joys of off the grid I tellya!


I went for a walk with Brynna and discovered that along the pathway that leads from our cabin to what we call 'the girls camp', across the property, a great big tree had fallen down on its own! It had snapped off as you can see, quite high, maybe 10 feet up. It was where the tree instead of growing straight up, split into two 'trees'. It must have been weak there, and I don't know if it was weight, or the wind or bugs or whatever, but it just was snapped. Thankfully it didn't do this when anyone was around, and while it is on our path, it isn't blocking it, but lying parallel. Something to do in the Spring and Summer, chop more firewood! Anyone want some?




And yes, our big early Christmas present, a brand new generator for the cabin. We had Troy Armitstead help us get it up there and going, which was such a huge help! As we've only used it once, I can only report that it did work, and was quieter than the other one, it seems to have easier access to the innards (for future problems, which I hope are later than sooner!) and we've hauled the old one back down to Denver. No idea what to do with the thing.

Also, I discovered over Thanksgiving weekend, that there is a theater in Silverthorne, and a Target too! I got most of my Christmas shopping done in Silverthorne and Frisco while the rest of the family watched movies!

Glass is half full!

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope it finds everyone well and comfy, with good friends or family, and blessed with a tasty meal. I haven't been one of those organized people that have expressed their gratitude for something every day in November, either blogging or on facebook...I've been too busy trying not to cough and writing...NaNoWriMo count is up past 27,000 words. I'm just thankful I've beat my past record of fail! ;) But I am very grateful and I'm trying to really think about how good things are for me instead of what is popular nowadays...whining!

We're going to attempt the cabin again for Turkey Day, last year was a 'disaster', having three sources of power die on us. But as I'm trying to see things from the 'glass half full' point of view...I figured last year we just weren't supposed to be up there. We had to come home Thanksgiving Day and boy the traffic was non-existant! So that was good. We had Steak instead of Turkey, we got to go shopping at a lot of stores on Friday without too much driving and we had our bird the next day and watched movies and missed a big snowstorm.

Still, I'm really, really hoping I can keep having a good attitude when, doubtless, there will be some snags! Crossing fingers for no broken pipes, no frozen well, and no critter invasions. Also really hopeful for power sources to work and the weather to be fine. We're having our wonderful friends up, and I'm very excited. When you don't live near family, you make family from friends. And I could not be more blessed that way.

I'm particularly feeling emotional about the changes our Stake made on Sunday. Ever feel tugged between being very happy and very sad?? We had 8 wards that they pared down to 6. Every ward was sliced and diced, and glued to various puzzle shaped blobs. Each ward was re-named, which I thought to be a brilliant move by our leadership because really, we're all starting afresh. I'm now in Littleton Ward, and I'm going to have some wonderful people in my ward that weren't there before. I'm also going to have some of my very best friends going to a different ward. It's going to take some adjusting.

I am glad about it because of the motives and the results. The youth program needed some help, and this basically adds a lot of youth into the joint program we have, which is very good for our kids. It's also really good as far as leadership managing the massive piles of people that need managing. There's a large percentage of need verses those who are willing to help, put it that way! This should help that. But it still doesn't make me feel good about the fact that my friends are not in my ward.

Thank goodness most are still in my building, and we're not living far away so I can still hang out with them. I must say I don't envy those who have to organize such things. I am sure they will have a lot of 'feedback' but I hope people can trust them. What a great opportunity for each of us to get to know others from our Stake that we would not perhaps had got to work with before! Half full, it's half full. Actually if I think about it, generally my life is more often at least 3/4ths full, so I'm not complaining. Some things make us just work harder to see it.

I'm actually very grateful for all I have, I always feel so lucky I wonder just what is around the corner. :) I don't want to ramble but thanks to all of you for all you do for me. :) Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!!

*HUGS*