October 2019

Tuesday 10/1

The big rigs that have been passing our house
all day long have slowed
down a bit and as you can see . . . .

There are now sidewalks and curbs . . . yay !

Wednesday 10/2

Construction on our new chapel continues and
it is coming along nicely . . . .

There is a lot of activity going on now and
this building is beginning to take shape.

Thursday 10/3

Today, we spent some time at Matt's helping Jen
get a few things done around the house.
(Jen's still not supposed to bend or lift)

We cleared off all the rabbit "stuff" that 

was on the patio and repacked some of it and . . . .

re-stacked it

on the side of the house then covered it with 

a tarp and some plastic to protect it from the weather.

Steve sanded six table tops and . . . .

Linda stained them.

 Earlier we, with Matt's help . . . .

hung these new patio lights then tonight

Matt installed a new light fixture.

(that is where they got the power for the lights)

 While Steve and I were doing the tables,

Matt cut, installed & caulked some new baseboard

trim in the family room.

We were glad to have this chance to help out and

everything is looking great !

Saturday-Sunday

10/5-6

This weekend was . . . . 

189th Annual Conference of the Church

It was a wonderful weekend with amazing 

talks and music.

We were blessed to hear messages from our Prophet,

President Russell M. Nelson

and other apostles and church leaders.

They have a way of making you feel good about

yourself while, at the same time, inspiring you to want

to be and do better.

More details about the Children & Youth initiative

were given along with adjustments to

who is able to witness baptisms and sealings.

Eight new temples were announced, statistics on the

Church Humanitarian activity, and a challenge to prepare

for the April 2020 General Conference and the 200th

anniversary of the first vision was given.

Tuesday 10/8

Last week we noticed one of the hinges on our

toilet seat lid had broken.  We searched 

for some replacements here locally but were

not successful so we checked online and

found some on Amazon.

So today,  though the hinges weren't exactly right,

"handy-man" Steve was able to drill

and adjust them enough to make them work

YaY !

Wednesday 10/9

This year we decided to do something different

for Halloween treats.

We will be giving out Glow Stick

bracelets or necklaces

Hopefully this will be fun for the kids

and at the same time accommodate

kids with food allergies etc.

and help them to be a little bit safer.

Thursday 10/10

Today we went on a day trip to Baker City

for a "sibling's" reunion.

Waldrop's, Mastrude's, D. Waite's, Parker's, S. Waite's, Fuller's 

We are very blessed to still have all six siblings and

their spouses well enough to get together

and reminisce about years gone by.

We had a nice luncheon at the Sunridge Restaurant

and time to visit and share pictures

both before and afterward.

It only takes about 1 1/2 hours to make the

drive from Boise to Baker City

and we try to enjoy some familiar sights

along the way.

Union Pacific Railroad trains

both Gayle's dad (engineer) and

Steve's dad (carman) worked for the UPRR

Construction projects, several, along the way

and . . . .

Beautiful Scenery !

Friday 10-11

This week of freezing temperatures has been hard 

on the plants in our yard.

Here are just a few of the victims . . . . Fall is here,

winter is rapidly on it's way.

This lonely, green pumpkin is the whole of

our pumpkin harvest this year . . . .

hoping it turns orange before Halloween arrives !

The one orange spot is where it was

laying on the ground.

Nearly 15 years ago Linda inherited one of her

dad's violins and began learning how

to play it, mostly self-teaching.

However, with moving and serving two

missions the lessons stopped for several years.

Three weeks ago she began, once again, 

to pick up the violin and is now . . . .

taking weekly lessons from a very talented

sister in our Stake.

 After just a few lessons she has learned a lot
and is enjoying this new adventure and
hopes she will someday,
be able to play beautiful music.
 (not so much right now)

Saturday 10-12

Today we went into Matt's house and helped
them with a couple of "projects".

We were able to get some of the winterizing for the
pool done, got the office packed up and . . . .

Put this table top that we stained last week

together, securing it to the frame with

"L" brackets then . . . .

bolting the legs on.
We were able to move it into the house and
it looks great !

On our way home tonight,
 there was this beautiful scene . . .

Of course pictures never show these night time scenes

as beautiful as they really are

Sunday 10/13

This afternoon we went for a drive around town and

ended up at the building site for our new

church meeting house.

They are making progress with all the roofing on and

ready to begin the brickwork.

Monday 10/14

Steve has been busy out in our yard 

cutting back frozen shrubs and moving all our yard decor

from the planters to . . . . 

 Our new shed.  He was able to install a

shelf and now has put it to good use.

Tuesday 10/15

Today we had our annual 

Eye Doctor's appointment. 

All is well and not much has changed.

Steve will go for is annual glaucoma check and

Linda will get a new pair of glasses.

Steve does not have glaucoma, however one eye

is showing early symptoms, so that,

coupled with a family history of glaucoma,   

makes the doctor want to do this additional check each year.

Linda's eyes have been changing little by little

so now, all those "littles" have added up to a 

big difference in her six year old glasses and it's

time to update them.

Her changes are not for the worse, but are

getting better....strange.

12 years ago when we moved to Star her vision

was around 20/400 +/-

Now it is right around 20/200 +/-

We both are developing cataracts but they are not

bad enough to even consider surgery yet.

So much for documenting our eye health !

Wednesday 10/16

Today we went into Matt's and helped 

our granddaughter, Cami, move all her bunny "Stuff"

She did three loads in the pick-up and one

load in her car. It took most of the

day but she got nearly everything moved.

Tuesday 10/22

Today Jen had a family birthday party for Cami

When she arrived everyone was in the back yard

waiting for her and we all sang

Happy Birthday to her.

Picture "memory" book Linda compiled for

Cami.  It took many hours to search

for the pictures then arrange them all so that

they looked nice.

She did it by year beginning with Cami's birth in

2001 until this year's birthday.

Jetta, Camrynn, Sienna

Gift from these cute sisters

After a lasagna dinner Jetta lit the candles

on this Birthday Cheesecake

 and we sang Happy Birthday.... again !

Saturday 10/26

Tonight we had our Ward Chili Cookoff

We had lots of good food and company.

We met a new couple that has recently been 

reactivated.... we enjoyed getting to

learn a little bit about them.  We also enjoyed

the company of some of the empty nester couples

from before the Ward boundaries were changed,

it was fun visiting with them again.

Monday 10/28

The construction at the end of our street is making

good progress

They have been working on laying pavers in the

cul-de-sac where a giant french drain was dug

they are using this interesting machine to pick up an

entire layer of pavers from the pallet at one time.

then swinging it around and setting them in place.

Even with this amazingly efficient system, 

it is still taking a long time to do an entire cul-de-sac.

Today we noticed asphalt paving equipment

driving by our house so we walked

down to the end of the street to see what was going on.

They were busy laying asphalt . . . .

Doesn't it look great !

all that's left now is to get the lots ready (14 of them)

and begin building new homes.

The lots are HUGE and we wonder if the homes

will also be huge.

Thursday 10/31

Halloween

Our Halloween Ghost reappeared again this year

to greet our trick-or-treaters

He is always a BIG hit !

Thanks mom for starting this tradition.

It has been so much fun to carry it on all these years.

Our trick-or-treaters were happily surprised to receive

our treats this year.... Glow Stick necklaces.

It was fun to watch them wander around the

neighborhood all "aglow".

So another month comes and goes and 

it is only 54 days until Christmas.

Where has this year gone?

It has been a busy month full of fun activities

Now we look forward to the upcoming

Holiday season as we renew traditions and share

good times with family & friends.