October 2023

 

Saturday 9-30

October Conference began today, September 30th!

We participated via BYU TV.

We missed seeing our dear prophet, President Russell M. Nelson.

He is recovering from a fall a few weeks ago causing injuries to his back muscles

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was also absent due to medical issues. We pray for Heavenly Father's tender care to be with each of them.

Sunday 10/1

Five wonderful sessions of beautiful choir music and inspiring messages from the First Presidency, Apostles, General authorities and other church leaders. 

Despite his injuries, we were invited to "Think Celestial" by President Nelson as he shared his message (pre recorded) at the conclusion of the last session. Once again, at the end of his remarks, he announced 20 new temples... the work is definately hastening!

Monday 10/2

Today the HVAC guys came to install our new system.

This crew of 4 arrived promptly at 8:00 a.m.

They got right to work. Each one had their own "specialty" area.

The old furnace . . . .

was soon gone and 5 hours later . . . .

we had a new AC and . . . .

Furnace.

Final inspection was done on Thursday 10/5 . . . We passed !

Saturday/Sunday 7/8

This weekend is our Stake Conference and we have a visiting authority!

Elder Erick W. Kopischke of the 70. He is from Germany and is currently serving in the Europe Central Area Presidency.  He will preside at the Saturday leadership and adult meetings and also the Sunday morning session. 

All the sessions were very good. Elder Kopischke is a great speaker. With his german accent, sense of humor and personal experiences, he is able to appeal to both young and old.

Thursday 10/12

Every Spring and Fall the county cleans up the streets.  Well . . . .

It's definitely fall and . . . .

The street sweeper is right on schedule !

Friday 10/13

We got a package in the mail today 

containing all these things

What do you think grandma is up to?

Hint, Hint . . . . Christmas will be here before we know it !

Saturday 10/14

This morning there was an Annular Solar Eclipse, meaning it's not a "total" eclipse. It happens when the moon is further away from the earth so it doesn't completely block out the sun, but it leaves a "ring of fire".  Here in Idaho, we will see about 80% of the sun blocked out by the moon, however . . . .

This is what OUR skies looked like just before the eclipse was to begin giving us little hope of being able to view any part of this event.

A little later, we checked outside and this is what we saw, now giving us a little bit of hope that maybe we might get a glimps of the eclipse.

we kept checking and finally we saw what looked like the eclipse. We snapped a picture then . . . .

blew it up!

 Sure enough, there it was, peeking through a tiny little break in the clouds.

Then as quick as it appeared, it was gone!

This is just a pretty pictue we captured while looking for the eclipse.

We're not sure if all the pretty colors have anything to do with the eclipse or not, but they are beautiful. The green crescent moon image by the tree must be some kind of reflection . . . it was only visable in the picture. When we zoomed in we could see that the tiny, little black speck at the top of the bright white cloud was clearly a bird. 

Monday 10/16

Tonight was Matt & Jen's Halloween party. They had a little spook alley complete with a fog machine, lots of games like pin the spider on the web and eyeball toss etc, a fire pit and arts & crafts.

There was a Photo Booth . .  .

Pumpkin Bean bag toss and . . . .

 Refreshments! 

Thanks Waite's for a fun evening !!

Wednesday 10/18

Today Kevin's family came, from Bountiful Utah, to spend a few days with us and Matt's family.

We did a seperate blog with LOTS of pictures but here are a few highlights

One day we went to Jeremy's Pumpkin Patch right here in Star and let the kids each pick out a pumpkin to carve.

Connor, Steve, Linda, Crew, Shea Sydney

Shea, Sydney, Crew, Conor


Sienna, Sydney, Shea, Crew & Connor's Pumpkins

One day we went to PoJo's Family Fun Center & Arcade

This is a fun place !!

Nine of us rode the Bumper Cars

The girls rode the Carousel 

And everyone played in the arcade

Sienna & Jetta

Shea & Sydney racing each other on motorcycles while the rest of their family cheered them on!

Crew & Connor 

One day we went to Parma to visit Aunt Marilyn, Uncle Keith and Jeff

Jeff took the girls for a ride in his cool roadster

Sydney & Shea played in the leaves

the kids played in the treehouse and . . . .

We picked some apples

Then later we went to the skate park and playground

Connor, Crew, Sydney & Shea

Connor pushing Sydney & Shea on this fun merry-go-round spicer web

Saturday afternoon . . . .

Linda, Shea, Camrynn, Lani, Sydney

Linda, Lani, Sydney and Shea went to Camrynn's Birthday craft party

One day we enlisted Matt & Kevin to do some work for us.

They did some repairs on the roof and . . . 

installed a fan/light . . .

 on our back patio

We played lots of games

amoung others, we played Skull King and . . . 

Scattergories

Monday 10/23

Last week Steve's reading light stopped working. We ordered a new bulb, thinking it was just a burned out bulb, but that didn't help so we began searching for a new lamp.

We found one on Amazon this morning and it was delivered this evening.

It is a different brand, but looks very simular to the old one.

It came in this small box. There were five pieces that needed to be assembled.

We got right to work and voila - it was ready to go in no time.

Wednesday 10/25

As we see all those beautiful autumn leaves begin to fall off the trees and onto the ground we begin to realize that fall is coming to a close and winter is just around the corner. 

 backyard Gum tree and Maple tree

Flowering Pear and our neighbor's tree sharing leaves with us. That's okay because our trees also share lots of leaves with our neighbors

Panorama view of our backyard. The large maple tree in the middle usually turns bright orange, but it hasn't been as brilliant this year . . . . yet.

Saturday 10/28

We began this day with . . . .

a temperature of 26 degrees, a squirrel enjoying the "sunny spot" and some frost still on the rooftops then  . . . . 

ended the day with a  cold/clear evening and a beautiful full moon.

In between we . . . .

Baked rolls and . . . .

watched football

Tonight we went to our Ward's traditional Chili Cook-off/Halloween activity

(the reason we made rolls)

 

We had a good turn out and lots of fun!

We have a very small ward but around 75 people came tonight 

(this picture was early in the evening before everyone came)

There was LOTS of good food

Chili & Corn Bread (and rolls)

There were prizes and awards for:

Chili, Corn Bread, Costumes and Pumpkins

Prizes

cute skelton trophys

There were cakes/cupcakes for the "cake walk"

There were pumpkins on each table to decorate

(Linda got nominated to draw for our table)

Our table's "Minion" pumpkin

(held by our spokesman and recently released Bishop)

All the creative pumpkin entries and . . . .

From fireman & Cop, to dinosaur and vampires it was fun seeing them all and cheering for our favorite in the costume contest.

Monday 10/30

Due to the freezing overnight temperatures . . . 

we decided to pick all the remaining tomatoes. We are looking forward to having these tomatoes for a few more weeks as they ripen in the garage.

Today and toorrow are forecast to be sunny and warmer so . . .

Linda thought it seemed like a good time to plant some bulbs.

 These Tulips and Daffodils will look pretty . . . 

around our front yard flowering plum tree next spring!

Steve is trying to keep on top of the falling leaves. 

but no matter how many he collects, the trees still don't look like they've lost any... how is that possible?

Tonight the Trick-or-Treaters will be out and about collecting all their sweet goodies, sooo . . . .

It's time to put up our traditional lampshade Ghost.

He, we'll call him Guss, has been appearing every Halloween night since Linda was a little girl and . . . .

continues to "Light Up" our front window to the delight of our Trick-or-Treaters and their parents

Sienna forgot to take her Jack-O-Lantern home after carving it when Kevin's family was here, so . . . . we lit it and loved having it on our front porch tonight !

Pictures of Grandkids on Halloween night

Kevin & Lani's kids

Connor, Crew, Sydney, Shea

Lansford kids

Morgan, Charlotte, Cora (Wyatt didn't dress up this year)

Matt & Jen's kids

Sienna (on right) and her Smith cousins (Jetta & Camrynn - all grown up now)

October has come to a close. It was a busy month as we began the "holiday season". With halloween over we can now get ready for one of the most wonderful times of the year - Thanksgiving and Christmas !