Halloween Party

Tues, the 27th, was our ward Halloween party.

This year we went with the sports theme.  I had 2 

cheerleaders, a football player, and Chant and I were

the coaches.  Believe me, my girls we all into character.

They were screaming and bouncing all over before we 

left and it continued at the church.

This year we went all out, for us.  The girls and I had glitter 

spray on our arms.  Brinnley and Porter had red hair, even

more red than usual for Brinn ;)

And we even put face paint on the girls and Chant.

"GO Team!"

First we ate chili and cornbread, then played games created by the YM and YW.

My favorite was one by the Young Men.  It was a huge box filled with packing peanuts and then scattered throughout were gourds.  They picked the kids up and held them upside down in the box while the kids went fishing for a gourd.  Brinnley tried it and she was it there a long time.  They asked if she found one yet and she screamed from inside the depths of the box a victorious "Yeah!"  They pulled her out and she held up the prized possession.  Two hands full of packing peanuts!  Yes!  I didn't have the camera, but it was pretty darn cute!

The prize for the games at the church was a book.  Ainsley is reading to Daddy from her new Tigger and Pooh book.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Prep

This year for Halloween the girls are going to be cheerleaders and Porter a football player.  They wanted to get out their costumes yesterday and make sure they fit.  We got Porter a football.  He was making touch-downs into a basket.  Every time he threw the ball in the girls would scream and cheer.  Then they started to chant, "Go team, go" until he threw the ball in again.  It was a very energetic afternoon!

Grafton, Illinois

Ains by the lighthouse

Saturday after the pumpkin patch, we loaded in the car and let the kids sleep while we took a scenic drive to St. Charles County.  We took the ferry across the river to Grafton, Illinois.  We didn't really know what there was to do in Grafton, but we couldn't pass up the excitement of a Ferry Ride!

When we got off the ferry, this little town of 620 people was so crowded we couldn't get down the street.  We parked the car and got out the strollers.  It was a beautiful day!  The sun was out and it was so fun.  We stopped for ice cream then continued on to the flea market where we found a set of children's books for cheap, conditional upon the promise we would read them to the children.  Yay!  We passed a group of Hippies who were putting on their own bicycle parade.  Hence the beads.  Pretty cool though.  Bunnies and dragons and clowns, not the people the BIKES.  We continued to stroll through various antique/flea market shops.  Then we found a lighthouse by the shore.  Perfect photo op.

The sun was too bright for poor Ains.

By the lighthouse

Waiting to get on the ferry

A beautiful fall day in Missouri, or rather Illinois.

It was a wonderful day and I am already making big plans for our next adventure!  Next time we will go apple picking, visit the local park (looked awesome!), visit a shop that was calling my name but with a forlorn look I had to pass by, and maybe make a stop at the local one room jail.  

3 Lil' Pumpkins

Last Saturday Chant was home, commitment free.  We decided to take advantage and have some fun.

First stop was Rambach Farms in Chesterfield.

Such a fun pumpkin patch!

Dorothy and Brinnley meet

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Exploring the Fort.

I'm Free!

"Too bright, I can't look!"

We tried to get Porter to climb through this big 

pipe the kids are sitting on, but he got scared and Chant had to go in after him.  He survived, but wanted nothing to do with this, even sitting on top of it.

The girls and Chant got to go on a train ride through the hay fields.  They loved it!  

Grandma, missing you, thinking of you, and loving you always

Today I was missing my Grandma.  Probably from an experience that I had with my daughter last night.  But I wanted to tell a little about my Grandma.  Her name was Ida Lucille Atchley, but everyone called her Molly.  My Grandpa sang a song to her that was popular and it was about Molly.  It was a term of endearment that became permanent.  

My Grandma always had a quilt on.  Always.  She made a quilt to give each of her grandchildren when they got married.  She made these quilts when they were born and then stowed them in the attic until it was time to gift them.  Each was labeled.  

Mom and I lived with her for a time after my parents divorced.  Mom was a waitress so nights were just me and Grandma.  Our favorite dinner was a cheese sandwich, one piece of bread with cheese melted on top.  

She loved The Price is Right.  I always promised her when I was old enough I would take her to the show and we would have matching t-shirts that said "I love Bob!"  I still hope to make it one day.  

One time Grandma came to stay with us when we lived in Twin Falls.  She shared a bed a with me.  I am not a good bed partner.  I am a bed hog- I like to sleep in the middle.  I woke up the next morning and she was gone.  I looked over the edge of the bed and she was on the floor.  I smiled and said, "What are you doing down their silly 

billy?"  

Grandma loved to look out the window.  She always new the coming and goings of the neighbors.  

She cut 2 half- circles on opposite sides of 2-liter pop bottles and hung them in the tree outside her living room window.  They made beautiful decorations when the wind blew.  

When she wasn't sewing she was resting on the love seat just in front of the front door.  There was a metal wind chime hung just inside the door that would tinkle when the door opened, announcing the arrival of visitors.  

Grandpa had rows of built in shelves across the length of one wall in her living room.  Those shelves were filled with pictures of family.  It was my job to dust all those pictures and those shelves.  It took a long time- we have a big family!  

She always had a fire going.  Plus she had a heat picture on the wall that was always turned on.  Her home was a furnace!  

She hung laundry on the line to dry.  

The day she switched from well water to city water is the day she become obsessed with water conservation.  The plants didn't look  so good from them on because she watered them with soapy bathwater.

I couldn't imagine my wedding without my Grandma there.  She was always supposed to be there.  She died in 2001, just weeks after Chant and I met.  Even though she wasn't at my wedding, she met the man I would marry, and I take great comfort in that.  I cried when I opened the black garbage sack that held my quilt.  Made just for me.  I love it with all my heart, lime-green material and all.  I will be thinking of her tonight while snuggled on the couch warm inside the quilt sewn with her stitches and her love. 

Update and Corrections

 Check!  The perfect pair of jeans FOUND.  Thanks Maurices.

Correction #1:  Mom left me for one month, not one week.

Correction #2:  Kasey was the brother with me the day I was electrocuted.  It was Kip who taught me how to shoot a BB gun.  I tested my newfound skill out on the neighbors' dog, although I think it was more from poor aim than on purpose.  I really am sorry!  

Jack Weyland, please?

When I was in high school, I was a homebody.  All my friends lived in Island Park, as least 20 minutes away.  We didn't do much together outside of school because of the distance.  I was content to sit in my room and read.  I read for hours at a time.  At that time my favorites were anything by Jack Weyland, Rachel Ann Nunes, and Anita Stansfield.  

Apparently my mother was concerned about my lack of socializing because one evening she gave me the keys to her car and told me not to come home before 10:00.  I spent the next couple hours aimlessly driving around town.  At 9:30 I came home and begged for her to let me in the house.

I bet she wishes she had just been content to let me be because one of those times I did decide to embrace my youth, I rolled her SUV 3 times.  It was a Saturday.  Up late the night before babysitting.  Early to rise.  ACT day.  Gone all day with a marathon date.  Pre-dance activities then off to MORP at Ricks College.  Air conditioning and loud music kept me going until just a few miles from town.  My eyes every so slowly slid closed.  Awakened by the sound of my car hitting a reflector post.  Jerked the wheel to get the car back to the road.  Overcorrected.  An explosion of glass.  Keep my hands on the wheel so my arms won't fling out the window and be broken or worse.  Once.  Twice.  Three times.  Sudden stop.  RIght way up.  Thank goodness for that!  Door won't open.  Out the window.  Can't leave the car, so I will have to wait for someone to come.  A car in the distance!  Will they see me?  In the road, waving my arms.  Too close.  Almost hit by the car.  Cell phone?  "Mom, I rolled the car."  "Are you kidding?"  "Mom, I rolled the car."  "Where are you?"  "Fall River."  "What, why are you there?"  "Fall River Electric."  "We're coming."  Anger and embarrassment.  All my things strewn on the road.  I picked them them one at a time.  Chucked each item back in the car, where it belonged.  A guy from school.  "You okay?"  "Yeah, just dead when my parents get here."  Continue to throw things.  My journal.  All my nicely sharpened #2 pencils.  One of them had jabbed into my hand, just below my right pinky, early that morning as I ran from the house.  Forever a lead mark left in my skin.  My jacket, my bag.  Two old ladies.  "You should sit down, you are going into shock."  Shock?  Chills, shaking.  I couldn't stop shaking!  Finally, Mom and Dad.  You okay?  Ankle hurts.  Blood on shirt.  Where did it come from?  Better take you to the hospital.  Cop came.  "Everything okay?" "Yep, driving her to the hospital."  "All right."  30 minutes in the truck.  Back to where I just came from.  Sprained ankle.  Nifty air brace.  A dent in my abdomen.  Still there today.  3 or 4 inches long.  From the seatbelt.  Thank goodness for that seatbelt!  Blood?  Little cuts on hands from the broken glass.  She's fine.  A miracle!  The 30 minute drive home.  A fox in the road.  A sudden stop.  Screaming.  Meant to die tonight?  A night on the couch.  No stairs to my room.  Dad in the rocking chair all night.  Sitting watch.  

So, how bout those books?  

A Stroll Down Yellowstone Ave

6 summers.  Starting at age 16 ending at 21.  Six books of memories.

A sixteen year old girl living at her Grandma's house with her best friend.  Mornings off watching the  "The Price is Right" with Grandma.  Walking to work at 6:00 a.m.  Crisp air, beautiful morning light peeking through the fluffy, white clouds.  Quiet, peace, time to enjoy the beauty of the place so special in her heart.  Sunday mornings pushing Grandma to church in her wheelchair.  Nights sitting on her bed, Steph  on her own.  Laughing while discussed co-workers, unhappy patrons, cute bus boys.

A seventeen year old girl dancing with her friends under the scattered light of a street lamp to "The smile on your face lets me know that you need me..."  Walks in the park.  Laughing.  Swinging.  Mornings off watching "The Price is Right" with Grandma.  Shakes at Canyon Street Grill.  The first boy she really liked.

An eighteen year old girl.  No longer living at Grandma's house (she had gone to the nursing home.)  Venturing into the world of being roommates with people she didn't know.  Loving those roommates like she would sisters.  Late nights with 3 sets of feet crossed on top of each other.  3 spoons.  One carton of Moose Tracks.  Laughing, lots of laughing.  Crying, sometimes crying.  Forging friendships that would last.

A nineteen year old.  Her first night in town.  Work at 6:00 a.m.  Just falling into a deep sleep.  A knock at the door.  Grabbing a blanket and groggily making her way to see who it was.  Two young men, one she knew one she didn't.  Both in Dairy Queen uniforms.  "Can we borrow a movie?"  "Come on it."  Jelly beans on the table, a souvenir from a recent trip to California with all her college roommates.  "Can I have some?"  Translation:  Can I eat the whole bag?  The boy she knew munching away while perusing the video selection.  The one she didn't know caught her eye.  They started to talk.  She couldn't sleep that night thinking of him.  Two years later she would marry that boy that stole her heart that night and never gave it back.

A twenty year old.  A new place, new roommates.  Her boyfriend's sister.  Nighttime.  Quiet.  Counting tip money and setting aside tithing.  Suddenly a shrill scream from the next room.  A shadow could be seen through the window that joined the two rooms.  What is going on?  Suddenly two girls ran from their room and shut the door.  Quick, grab a towel so it can't fly under the door!  It?  A bat.  Flew in the open window.  Screaming.  Screeching.  What do we do?  A broom?  Not gonna work.  A brave cousin come to save the damsels in distress!  Oh sweet mercy!  

The sound from the theater coming into the living room (we shared a wall with the movie theater).  Free entertainment!  A Walk to Remember.  A frustrating boss.  Broken cars.  Bookstores.  Smelling the pages.  Wonderful co-workers.  Chocolate chip cookies on Sunday nights.  Talking about the Gospel, strengthening testimonies.  Building friendships that would last a lifetime.  Mother there two nights a week.  Laughing at her inept story telling abilities, those stories still producing laughs to this day.  An anniversary package forget.  Tears, lots of tears.  An anniversary package hidden in the depths of the post office.  Forgotten.  A package retrieved by a dear, concerned friend, soon to be sister-in-law.  Tears of joy!  He remembered!

A twenty-one year old girl.  Two jobs.  Seven days a week.  Thinking, lots of thinking.  7 hotel rooms each day.  Toilets, lots of toilets.  A love returned after a long separation.  That first hug!  A diamond ring.  A wedding to plan!  A beautiful, funny roommate. Forging a friendship that would last.  Castle boy.  Theater boys.  Dancing and singing along with James Dean while pricing t-shirts.  Movies with our boss.  Arby's.  Laughing.  Lots of laughing.  Not much sleep.  Senior citizens for coworkers.  Oh the laughing!  Watching taped episodes of The Bachelor.  A wedding in September.

6 summers.  6 books of memories.