First Snowfall; Magnus Turned 2; Luke Turned 13; Jacob's Family Attended BYU/Houston Football Game; Kade Turned 2

The day after I spent the afternoon with Mom and Nani, I got a cold. I was never worried it was Covid because I was only sneezing and had a runny nose. When I consulted the chart listing all the symptoms of allergies/cold/flu/Covid, my symptoms were consistent with the common cold. 

Thankfully, it doesn't appear Mom or Nani (or Glen) have gotten sick, so I am thankful for that. 

We had planned to have Ben's and Rebecca's families come over for lunch on Saturday. When I told them I had a cold, but would stay up in my bedroom if they still wanted to come here, they chose to come. 

I was happy when I got a picture or two of the new baby. He is definitely growing.

It is obvious he is growing when Haley sent a comparison photo of him in his car seat on the way home from the hospital and now.

I had a miraculous recovery with my twisted ankle and I had another miraculous recovery from my cold as well. Two days for each. Crazy wonderful!!

We woke up Sunday morning to our first snowfall. There was quite a bit on our picnic table, but thankfully no snow had accumulated on the driveway. 

As I watched people posting about the first snowfall of the season on social media, I had to laugh when I saw what someone posted about that. For some reason, a snowstorm is a novelty everyone feels is worth posting about.

Despite my rapid recovery, I stayed home from church just in case I still had germs. Glen stayed home with me. We watched our ward's sacrament meeting talks on YouTube. 

When that ended, Glen blessed and passed the sacrament for the two of us. It is such a blessing we are still able to do the sacrament in our own homes.

Looks like Kade had a fun time building a snowman. Haley's mom arrived that day to spend the next few weeks here getting to know her newest grandbaby. 

Of course it has been fun for her to see Kade again. She feels like he's grown just since she saw him when they were in New York right before the baby was born.

Natalie sent a few photos of herself. She's a cute girl with some very thick, long hair. Yes, I am having hair envy!!

Nani shared a couple of photos of skeletons in her neighborhood. I can't get enough of skeletons and their owners who go to such great effort of reposing them each day.

Nani said she thought of Jeff when she saw this baseball scene as Jeff loves the Dodgers. I love the stance each player is making. So true to life. So funny!!

The skeletons near us were having fun playing hide and seek before the snow fell. 

They took advantage of the snowfall to enjoy some snow activities.

Oh no!! It looks like one of them had an accident on the slopes.

We started getting another high wind warning. OH NO!! The last high wind warning resulted in major destruction. This was not good news. I kept envisioning all the roofs with blue tarps covering the last wind damage would be blown off and more damage done. 

I went out on the snowy deck in my Sunday shoes, freezing my feet in the process as I pushed and pulled trying to get the picnic table over against the grill to prevent it from rolling around on the deck in the wind. 

The next morning I woke up thinking the wind must not have been very bad...until I talked to Glen and Rebecca who assured me it had been a wildly windy night. So thankful for ear plugs!!! And so thankful there was not the same amount of destruction as the last wind storm.

I did realize that morning that our house was FREEZING when I went down to the main floor. It sure seemed ironic that we had gotten new furnaces a few short weeks ago so we would avoid a situation like this. 

The last thing we wanted was to be without heat on a record cold day!!

But, no worries! We turned on the gas fireplaces on the main floor and in the basement. Glen holed up in the office with a space heater and he was toasty warm. It was clean-the-kitchen-and-the-bathrooms day for me and so I was making my own heat as I worked.

The furnace company that installed the new furnaces sent a man out and found the reason that the circuit breaker kept tripping. There was something that wasn't wired correctly. We were happy he had come that same day and that by evening our main floor furnace was working once again.

Sarah was telling us how cold it was in Las Vegas when she went out running. 

Abe happily reported it was in the 80s in Florida. Well aren't we all happy for him??!!??

Magnus turned 2 years old and Klarissa posted some adorable photos of him.

Luke had a birthday as well. He is now 13 years old. We had a little FaceTime visit with him. He has such a cute smile and I wish I had thought to snap a photo of him while we were talking.

I will share some photos of Jacob's family when they went to Texas to watch the BYU/Houston football game. Luke is in some of these photos. Jacob's family has friends who live in Texas and it was a good reason to get together again with them.

They had a great time thinking up clever (or so they thought) sayings for their posters.

Our friend Rebecca Billat and her family were also at the game.

It looks and sounded like everyone had a great time at the game. Glen just wishes he had been at the football game with them.

About a month ago, Madison whispered in my ear, "Let's make another gingerbread house together."

Her wish came true when I was given a Halloween gingerbread house that needed assembling and I thought of her. Rebecca dropped Madison and Spencer off after their dental appointments for me to watch while she took Brooke to the eye doctor.

It was a great idea all except for the fact their mouths were half numb which made it hard to smile and hard to eat candy as they worked on decorating the haunted house.

We were having a bit of a struggle as the black frosting was way too thick and hard to work with and the orange frosting was way too thin and kept dripping.

After our crafting project was completed, Madison and Spencer were eager to go to the basement to watch a movie. 

They were finishing up their movie right when Rebecca and Brooke came home. It was very entertaining hearing all about Brooke's experience at the eye doctor.

Poor Brooke!! I could so much relate to her experience as that very thing happened to me. 

I started feeling faint as soon as the doctor put contacts in my eyes, so he had me get out of the chair and lie down on the floor until I could compose myself. Like grandma, like granddaughter!!

The Goldens went home to have dinner and then came right back to our house for Kade's 2-year-old birthday party that evening. Haley's mother was with them. The Pingels also came to the party.

I didn't take very many photos because I was busy holding the sleeping baby.

Caroline got her first chance at holding baby Levi. She loves babies and this made her very happy. So happy she didn't want to give him up when it was time for her family to go home.

Kade had a fun time blowing out his candles, time and time again. He was good at knowing to wait until after the birthday song was finished to start making his many attempts to blow out both candles.

I got super ambitious once again and got the upper flight of stairs and the rest of the main floor and the upstairs carpets cleaned. It was a BIG job!! After all that manual labor, and my body aching so much from working all those hours on it, I declared carpet cleaners do not get paid enough!!

I sure love to look at the freshly-cleaned carpets. Not bad, if I don't say so myself!!

Here are the latest skeleton shenanigans.

This image rang true as I have listened to the girls in the family talk about the challenges of being forced to home school their children. So much added responsibility, that's for sure. 

Sarah told us Lincoln is soon going to be able to go to school as Las Vegas is letting Kindergarten through 2nd grades start back to school. 

Carson is a bit jealous as he is anxious to see what the inside of their new school looks like. The boys started going to this new charter school this year, but have never attended school in person.

Sarah now has a glimmer of hope that one day, in the hopefully near future, all three of her school-age sons will be back in the school building.

Quotes of the Week

In family relationships, 'love' is really spelled t-i-m-e, Taking time for each other is the key for harmony at home.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

God invites us to cast our old ways completely out of reach and begin a new life in Christ.
--Dale G. Renlund

Even in times of discouragement or stress, we can minister patiently if we are focused on the joy of pleasing God and bringing light, relief and happiness to His children, our brothers and sisters.
--D. Todd Christofferson

I invite you to view technology as a tool to help you strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ. As you do so, you qualify yourself to receive inspiration and guidance about the role you should play in helping to sweep the earth as with a flood of truth and righteousness.
--David A. Bednar

Abe and Klarissa Expecting #4 and Bought a Home in NC; Vent Surprises; Mom's Birthday Lunch

Abe and Klarissa are expecting baby #4. HURRAH!! Their new baby will be a Florida-born baby. Abe showed us he now has a Florida driver's license. 

He and Klarissa are so glad to be out of San Francisco. Not only have they "left their hearts in San Francisco," but they have left their two homes and all their belongings there as well.

Abe and Klarissa have purchased a fixer-upper in North Carolina which will take many months to renovate. At that point they will decide how to move their stuff across the country.

It is a whole different way of living for them now than it was living in the bustling big city.

Looks like Magnus is feeling very autumnal with his choice of cereal.

Sarah's family really enjoys going to Red Rock Canyon and they have now become proud season ticket holders.

Put some boys on some rocks and they can be happy for hours.

Or put some boys in a pumpkin patch and it makes for another adorable all-boy photo.

What a joy to see children enjoying books so much.

Ben and Haley are feeling very sleep-deprived these days. Apparently Levi likes to keep them up at night. Kade likes to keep them running during the day. Between the two little ones, the parents are feeling overwhelmed and appreciate a change of pace every now and again.

So, they come to visit every few days and let Kade run around the house and then I get to hold and admire the perfectly-formed little newborn. 

We have discovered an obsession of Kade's. He likes to stick things in the central vacuum wall inlet. He has put dice in there before. Our television remote control has been missing for weeks. We are sure he put it in there. Who knows what else he's stuffed in those convenient holes in the wall.

After we watched Kade earlier in the week, I noticed three of my decorative pumpkins were missing. 

I looked all over for them and could not find them. Then I noticed the other two pumpkins were missing. 

Good thing Haley was here the second time as she was the one who figured out he had taken out the heat vent, dropped the pumpkins down the opening and replaced the vent like nothing had happened. She also retrieved a few other things that past grandchildren had put down the vent. 

Since the recent installation of our new furnaces and air conditioners, I have been feeling like we should get our air ducts cleaned. They haven't been cleaned since the house was built nearly 20 years ago. I felt like the air would be cleaner if the ducts are cleaner.

So we hired a company to come out and do the job. They spent quite a few hours here and retrieved quite a few interesting things.

This is a pile of some of the stuff they pulled from the vents. The thing that amazed me was the package of wet wipes that was nearly full. 

When I shared this photo with Sarah, she said she recognized most of those things belonging to their family. She said Jonah was an expert at lifting the vent covers and shoving things down into the open hole. 

It was my turn to play the organ on Sunday. It felt like I was playing four organ solos as I played the prelude, the opening and closing hymns and the sacrament hymn without any singing from the congregation. 

Before the meeting, Todd Brimley--the ward music director--was giving me a pep talk as it was my first time at the organ with the Covid no-singing rules in play. He encouraged me to not rush the hymns and to make sure my counting is correct despite him not standing up in front leading the music. 

I did my best to do as he had suggested. Imagine my delight when I checked my emails before bed and read this subject line of Todd's email. I floated off into a cloud of angelic slumber after that.

This is an update on the house down the street from us that sustained wind damage. The other leaning trees that were on their back neighbor's property finally got cut down. Now we'll see how long it takes to get the roof fixed. 

Halloween is sure going strong all around. It is entertaining to see the decorations people put out in their yards. This clown offering "FREE HUGZ" is a bit creepy.

I am now making it a daily ritual to either walk by or drive by this home up on Bountiful Boulevard. The owners reposition their skeletons every single day. It amazes me with all the effort that is made, but it sure is giving me a lot of pleasure with each changed scene.

When we got home from our mission, I was so impressed with the ultra clean tile and carpets in our house. Sarah had worked hard on the floors and I noticed!! I was surprised when she said she was the one who had cleaned the carpets with her own carpet cleaner.

Ever since then, I was determined to buy a machine so I could clean the carpets myself. After more than a year here, I decided it was time to buy a machine. Even more impressive than that, I got up the gumption to try out the new machine right after Glen pulled it out of the box and got it assembled.

I started out on the stairs leading to the basement and for some reason I accidentally stepped on the hose, causing me to twist my ankle and fall down. Thankfully, it happened on the last two steps, so I didn't fall far, but my ankle was hurting so much!!! 

I powered through, though, despite my injury. I had just filled the tank and didn't want to quit until the solution was gone. I did the rest of the stairs, the basement and the family room on the main floor. 

The whole time I kept thinking I needed to get my foot elevated and ice it. But on I kept going as I fixed us dinner and then was so sore I didn't know how I could manage to clean the machine and put it and the vacuum away. 

Thankfully Glen came to my rescue and cleaned all the parts of the carpet cleaner before he had to leave for an evening meeting. I could barely make it up the stairs to our bedroom after he left. 

The next day, I was thankful I had improved a bit and was able to hobble around to get ready for the day and then I was able to use that foot just fine to drive. 

I was able to go to Ogden to pick up Mom and Nani so we could go to lunch together at Olive Garden to celebrate Mom's birthday. Dad has been gone hunting with Sam the past few days, so it was a fun thing for her to do while she was home alone. 

Now here's some more good news... This morning when I got up, I found my ankle had improved so much that I have been able to walk around and do things today almost as if the injury hadn't happened. I still have to be careful going up and down stairs as that still hurts a bit, but otherwise, it's feeling pretty great. HURRAH!!!!

I was sad to learn my friend Diane Stewart, who lives across the street, now has Covid. She said she woke up on Saturday with a little head cold and since she works at a dental office, she decided she better get a Covid test done before going to work and she tested positive. After a couple of days she was feeling fine and said it felt like a regular cold--only this time it is called Covid. Crazy!! But, I am so very thankful she has a mild case and keep praying that Grant will not get it.

This time of year is so beautiful with the changing of the leaf colors. 

Despite the sign that winter is coming, I'm going to enjoy the beautiful fall colors while they last.

Quotes of the Week

The Lord Jesus Christ is a champion of second chances--and third and fourth chances too.
--Joni L. Koch

Even when we are found faithfully keeping the commandments, there are trials and tragedies that could interrupt our joy. But as we strive to overcome these challenges with the Savior's help, it preserves both the joy we feel now and the joy we anticipate.
--D. Todd Christofferson

Read the scriptures aloud to your children on a daily basis. Let them take turns when they can... It will help them to have the doctrine of Christ embedded in their minds and in their memory banks at an early age. I have great hope for your families.
--Russell M. Nelson

The prayer Heavenly Father seems eager to answer is our plea to be led to someone who needs our help.
--Michelle Craig