Vala's Pumpkin Patch Is Open; Windstorm Clean-up; Venturing Out to Shop

Jacob's family is happy to be able to go to Vala's Pumpkin Patch this year. Covid isn't depriving them of their fun family fall festivities!!! HURRAH!!! 

I miss seeing Luke's face in the photo. He was with a friend doing their own thing.

It looks to me like they have the whole pumpkin patch to themselves! Jacob reported there is a Covid casualty at Vala's. This year they do not have the corn pit--which is a pit full of corn kernels for the children to play and roll around in. 

I was super happy knowing Jacob's family was having a fun family outing. 

Meanwhile...as we continue to spend the majority of our time at home with no fun outings...we have missionaries that still want to come visit us in this Covid time. I am very leery of germs, but Glen gives them all big hugs. UGH!! They are the age group that seems the least concerned about germs and following the Covid-prevention social distancing rules.

Jamil Pereira invited himself to breakfast.

Not long after he left, Alex Liddell, his parents and younger brother came for a visit.

We were happy Glen had just enough time after they left to eat some lunch before heading off to the stake center for his afternoon shift directing traffic.

Various church parking lots were set up for green waste dumping. Glen wasn't able to help unload because of his booted foot, but he was happy to be helping with the wind disaster clean-up as best he could.

There were some young men that were working so hard to help unload the cut branches and trunks any time a truck pulled up. Glen was very impressed with them and their hard-working attitudes.

It was so frustrating for us to have such smoky air because of all the fires burning in California. One good thing about our hurricane-force winds was our air cleared up--at least for a few days. HURRAH!!!

The news headline and photos of what San Francisco looks like sure makes me glad Abe and Klarissa have been long gone from the city.

Our sweet Sabbath Day was spent having home sacrament meeting and studying "Come Follow Me."

Another missionary came by for a visit Sunday afternoon, Kayla Eyre and Caleb Rasmussen are getting married next week and she wanted us to meet him. They are getting married in Idaho. 

Their wedding invitation gave the time of the reception and then it said to not forget to bring swimsuits. They are going from the reception to Lava Hot Springs to have a swimming party with their guests.

Unique. But then, what of all the weddings and wedding celebrations these days is not unique due to Covid!?!

On my morning walks and when I am in the car, I am on the lookout for fallen trees. It continues to be so evident how much damage the high winds caused. I get very sad with each and every fallen tree. Even seeing the remains of a fallen tree finds me feeling so sorrowful.

These huge pine trees are down at our church. I previously only noticed the smaller fallen trees near the street. Another day I noticed these downed trees at the back of the parking lot.

I posted these next two photos in the previous post. It is a neighbor's home just down the street from us. Their neighbor's HUGE tree toppled over and landed on their roof. 

We could tell a lot of damage had been done to their roof, but didn't know the full extent until after the trees were removed.

Notice another huge tree leaning their way. What a mess!!!! The tree cleanup was a mess and their roof is a mess. My heart aches for them. 

I hope there is a blessing in all of this for them. Perhaps they needed new shingles anyway and now insurance will pay for a new roof. I don't know! Something good has to come from this!! 

Part of my daily routine consists of a piano concert for Glen. I have pulled out very old piano books from when I was taking piano lessons. It has been fun for me to review them. 

I really enjoy looking at the notations on almost every page that my piano teacher Mrs. Topham has written. I will forever be thankful she was willing to take on her one and only piano student--ME!! 

The piano is so soothing and therapeutic for me. Glen also loves to hear my piano music. I am very thankful I have a beautiful piano. My newly-married piano-less years had me yearning for my own piano. 

Oh happy day when Dad and Mom told me they were ready to give me the family piano. Oh happy second day many years later when I was able to pass the piano on to Rebecca and go pick out a new piano for me.

We have truly been hermits since this Covid pandemic hit. It has been a blessing that Glen has been able to recover from his foot surgery at home all these months. But, enough is enough!!!!! I am so sick of being homebound!!!!

When we got our annual Costco check in the mail, we decided to venture out to Costco (making a stop at Office Depot first) to spend the check at Costco. I figure if we go places earlier in the day, we can avoid crowds and I will feel safer.

Turnabout is fair play, so we got Rebecca's Costco shopping list and did the shopping for her for a change. 

I have a doctor's appointment for a physical coming up next week, so I needed to go to the lab and get my blood drawn. 

It was my lucky, blessed day because the blood was drawn with just one stick. HURRAH!!!! I always thank the phlebotomist profusely when this happens. Way too many bad experiences in the past haunt me every single time I need to get my blood drawn.

Since I was out, I decided it was the day I was going to go to the Dollar Store and get stocked up on birthday and anniversary cards. 

As luck would have it (I was continuing to have a blessed day), I was able to find an appropriate card for every single person and couple in the family. I had been sure I would have to go to Walmart to finish this card-buying project. I now have my year's supply of cards!!

Since Famous Footwear was right across the parking lot, I ventured over to shop at that store. I haven't bought a new pair of athletic shoes for a long time. My floating big toe on my left foot has just recently poked a hole in the top of my shoe. I also wear my heels off on the outsides of my shoes. 

I have absolutely LOVED this particular pair of shoes. They have been the absolute most comfortable shoes I have EVER had. I hated the thoughts of giving them up. 

Imagine my surprise and utter glee when I found a pair of the exact same shoes the exact same size!!! Look at me continuing to have an extremely blessed day!!!!! 

I have since had Glen order another pair for me on the Internet. When I find a comfortable shoe, I have to buy in multiples because it is so rare to find comfort for these problematic feet.

It was buy one pair and get the second pair free going on at Famous Footwear. I needed a new pair of warm snow shoes as I had thrown my old ones away. What to my amazement did I find on the clearance rack but a pair of COMFORTABLE snow boots!!! Were the blessings flowing that day, or what??!!??

I wore them around the house the rest of the day to make sure they were going to be comfortable for extended wearing. This look reminded Glen and me of Madison who loves to wear her snow boots on very hot summer days.

For some reason (I am blaming COVID!!!), the girls and I have not been able to order Chicken Gumbo soup on our Walmart orders. This is an ingredient in the sloppy joe recipe we like to make. 

One day Rebecca went inside Walmart and struck gold with securing many cans of this kind of soup. She shared a few with me and we were finally able to have a sloppy joe meal. 

Sarah was sad she couldn't fix that meal as their traditional back-to-school dinner because Las Vegas is having a shortage as well.

Rebecca was delighted to hear some updated school news. Pretty soon she will only have to homeschool her children on Fridays instead of Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. 

When Sarah heard this news, she almost cried and said she is moving back to Utah! She is getting no news of the schools in Las Vegas opening any time soon. 

And look what a great teacher Mrs. Excell is turning out to be. She had her students doing a craft project of making dreamcatchers. 

Friday is Disco Dance Party Day, which is a celebration that they survived another week of homeschool.

What little boy student would not enjoy the day they made ooblek?

As we have been more adventuresome this week, Glen decided to keep the adventure going when he decided he could mow the lawn...wearing his boot...

He assured me the mower is easy to push and he would not do any edging. He would wait for one of the boys to edge at the next mowing.

Now his goal is to get Ben and Haley's recycle trash can emptied before they return home from New York. They have been gone a month and Ben just notified us they are staying another week so they can go to the temple with Haley's brother who is leaving soon for his mission. That will be nice for them.

The story of the recycle trouble is we have driven down to their house every week except one and have put out the recycle bin and it doesn't ever get picked up. 

We have one more week to achieve success. Can we do it???!!!???