Ready for Christmas

Yep! We are finally ready for Christmas!

Chris and Chantelle came and helped us get the tree down out of the top of the garage and then helped us decorate it.

It looks great - we are enjoying it. It is hard to fit a tree into our living room - we have to move the furniture around and then have no space to exercise in the morning (not that I do that every morning anyway). We have lots of memories in the ornaments that we put on the tree. We thought it would be nice to include our children every year in the decorating of the tree. That was really fun.

The bread has been baked and shared with the neighbors - along with raspberry jam. Yes, we even found time to make the jam this summer in between weddings.

Here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Halloween

The annual Pumpkin carving tradition was great! We have the traditional jack-o-lantern by Kathy, the goofy eyes by Vic, a spooky house by Chris, Wolves howling by Chantelle, An Apple a Day (complete with worm) by Mahon, Cindy's whomping willow, Briant's smoker, Missy's toothy smile.

We had a great time, complete with chili and apple crisp.

Fire or not

On Thursday, October 9, I was invited by Cindy to listen to her 1st place poem as she read it at the Professional Conference. It was in the Hinckley building where I work, So at 11:30 I went downstairs to the appointed room. We were all enjoying the poetry being read, when Bong, Bong, Bong - the fire alarm went off.

Well, needless to say, we all went outside and waited for 15 minutes or so while the smell of burned microwave popcorn was cleared out and the security guys said it was OK to go in.

When, what to my wondering ears did hear; the following Monday, the Bong, Bong, Bong of the fire alarm. I was in my office and I thought "Not again". But I went outside and waited. Well, the fire trucks arrived, the police arrived, the security guys wouldn't let us in the building.

Another false alarm - No - an electrical fire in the computer equipment in the classroom down the hall. And, to my sceptical mind - I wasn't prepared for the real thing. I had left my purse in the building.

Now (it probably will never happen again) I am ready for fire alarms. I will take my purse, turn off my computer (it had reset and didn't want to let me log back on), and I will take those alarms more seriously.

They're All Married

Wow! What a summer! We now have 6 children, 6 daughter/son-in-laws, 6 grandchildren (almost - when Julie and Devin have their 1st this month.)



Missy & Briant Giles were married on July 11, 2008 in the Idaho Falls Temple, Mahon & Cindy Ray were married on August 22, 2008 in the Rexburg temple, and Chris married Chantelle Johnson on September 20, 2008 in the Rexburg temple.


We traveled to North Carolina on the 6th of September. We stayed with the neighbors and now have new friends. The people in North Carolina are wonderful. Cindy has triplet sisters and brother and they were baptized while we were there. Hurricane Hannah was in full swing while we were there. As we waited in the airplane for a break in the wind, the rain was really pouring. We made our break and headed to Baltimore for a connection - a very turbulent flight.


The next weekend we were in Calgary Canada. We had another great weekend. The people in Canada are great. We were hosted by the Johnson's and enjoyed an afternoon outing going on a hike to Grassi Lake. While hiking, I lost my footing and fell. I hit my face on a tree - it is truly amazing that you can get bruises on your cheek and forehead and not break your glasses.


Chris married Chantelle on the 20 of September. It was raining when we went into the temple. It quit while we were in there and we were able to get some pictures. Then it rained some more and we waited outside the temple. Then we went to the gardens for the luncheon and the rain stayed away until the luncheon was over, then it poured for a while. We set up the reception inside the gazebo (in case of rain) and it never rained the rest of the day. We had a great day.


Now we are officially empty nesters and enjoying it!