October 2024

Wednesday 10/2

It's that time of year when we begin our "fall clean-up"

.  Today, we started putting away a lot of our yard décor. There were a couple of our garden critters that had sustained some damage over the summer. Our little honey bear lost an ear and one of our little chipmunks lost a foot. Linda repaired them and also gave the birds on our patio fountain a little extra hot glue so they were a bit more secure. We also packed up the fairy garden our grandkids set up earlier this summer. The beautiful blue pond pebbles had to have the dirt sifted from them and then they had to be washed, dried, and bagged. 

Now the fairy garden, bears, bunnies, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, racoons, and frogs are all comfortably stored away for the winter.

Thursday 10/3

Six months ago Linda had a CT Scan on her lungs. They found what is called a "groundglass" nodule of concern, due to its size. Since, with no previous lung pictures, they didn't have anything to compare it with they suggested she get a second scan in six months. That scan came today. The good news is that is has not changed at all. They said it had likely been there her whole life. 

Saturday 10/5

This was the first day of the 194th semiannual General Conference

While thousands were privileged to attend in person at the Conference Center, millions, including us, attended via technology. We remember when "in-person" was the only option. Then, as time went on, General Conference gradually became more available, world-wide, via radio, television and now satellite. We are grateful for the advances in technology that allow the world to hear the inspired messages of the Prophet, Apostles, church leaders and choir.

These are just a few of the thoughts shared by those that spoke today.

All three sessions today were inspiring, both through music and the spoken word. 

Sunday 10/6

It has been another wonderful conference day. Here are just a few short reminders of the messages we heard today. 

Today's music and speakers were powerful. The concluding speaker of the Conference was President Russell M. Nelson. He began his remarks with an update of the Salt Lake Temple renovation and said it is on track to be completed in 2026. He then announced 17 new temples. He counseled us that now is the time to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. He told us to rejoice in Christ, to come unto Christ and said "The Best is Yet To Come!"

President Nelson did not attend, in person, the Saturday morning, evening, or Sunday morning sessions however he did attend the afternoon sessions on both days. It seems that 100 years might be catching up with him.

Tuesday 10/8

 Walking during the fall season is so relaxing

The colorful trees and fall mums are beautiful right now !!

Saturday 10/12

While on her walk this afternoon . . . .

Linda came across our Bishop's kids. Ava and Marshall were selling homemade pumpkin cookies and muffins. Yummy!!

Monday 10/14

It has been a long time since we have done any flying so we decided it was about time to get back to it and see how these old bones of ours do.  We decided to head to North Carolina to have a visit with the Lansford's.

We left Boise on Sunday night at 11:30  p.m. on a Delta redeye to Atlanta and were fortunate to be assigned two seats in Comfort+.  With the time change we arrived at 5:30 a.m. We navigated to our connecting flight gate on a very L O N G escalator. We had breakfast at Five Guys during our three-hour layover and before our short flight, on SkyWest, to Fayetteville. We had even better seat assignments, this time in first class. Trudi and Morgan picked us up.

Day one at Lansford's was filled with mostly resting up from the redeye

We had some "little" gifts sent from Amazon . . . Lip Smackers for Charlotte & Morgan and Giraffe party forks for Cora. Wyatt is now a cook and all-around, backhouse guy at Freddy's. George showed us his new-to-him Stingray Corvette...pretty snazzy (can we use that word without getting accused of being  r e a l l y  old ?)

Tuesday 10/15

Day 2 kept us busy getting ready for Wyatt's Graduation Ceremony.

There was "refreshments" shopping to do (cake & ice cream), decorating, and Linda was creating a slide show consisting of pictures from Wyatt's life (searching for several hours for the pictures). Wyatt graduated from the "Creative Country Academy". . . Trudi's home-school, school name.

After dinner the festivities began . . . 

George downloaded the Pomp & Circumstance music and played it while Wyatt came down the stairs and made his entrance. 

George gave the commencement address and both he and Trudi presented Wyatt with his Diploma. Wyatt opened a few gifts, threw up his cap and then we all watched Linda's slide show. When that was done we had refreshments. 

We had a fun evening celebrating Wyatt's accomplishment.

After all the hoopla was over, we went outside and . . . .

took a few pictures of the Lansford's Halloween decorations. It's a spooky place and will no doubt have lots of trick-or-treaters in a couple of weeks.

Wednesday 10/16

Day 3 - Our last full day with the Lansford clan

Charlotte likes doing art projects, Morgan likes playing his new electronic drums and Cora loves her iPad (and shopping), yogurt, and Goldfish crackers.

This afternoon George took us to the U.S. Army Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville. It was very interesting.

The flag-filled "Field of Honor" was a beautiful sight.

There were many life-size displays

A memorial to the "First Special Forces" group

A display about the establishment of the Special Forces

The "Iron Mike" statue in honor of Airborne Troopers

A full-size soldier hanging from a parachute in the museum lobby

Thursday 10/17 

Day 4 - We flew home today! 

We left for the airport at 12:30 and our plane left Fayetteville at 2:30 for Atlanta. We had a 4-hour layover in Atlanta before making the four hour flight back home to Boise. Our "stand-by" status got us seats in Comfort+ from Fayetteville and Coach from Atlanta to Boise. The coach wasn't too bad because we had a row of three seats all to ourselves which gave us extra room.

The blue line shows our route from Fayette to Atlanta to Boise. It was a long day of both flying and sitting around waiting...but, we survived. 

Trudi, Cora, George, Wyatt, Morgan & Charlotte

We had a wonderful visit with Trudi and her family and it was fun helping them celebrate Wyatt's High School graduation.

Saturday 10/19

Tonight , our ward had it's annual Chili Cookoff. It is always well attended and lots of fun. There was LOTS of Chili, corn bread & rolls along with some veggies, desserts & Cider. It was all delicious!  After dinner, there were GAMES.

A fun Primary Pie Eating Contest with mini Pumpkin pies covered with whipped cream.

We played BINGO and a "guess-the-weight" pumpkin and also a "How-many" candy corns in a jar. It was a fun-filled evening with our ward family.

Sunday 10-20

Linda is playing her violin in a String Quartet the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This afternoon they had their first practice.

This group will be playing "Come Thou Fount". They have been looking for a cello player and they finally found one. Linda is playing Violin 1, Danny on Violin 2, Kenzie is playing the viola part and Hunter, Kenzie's friend, will play the cello part. 

Monday 10/21

Mother Nature saying "Good Morning"

This morning we noticed a beautiful sunrise reflecting on the clouds. Linda grabbed her phone and went outside to snap a picture. By the time she got back inside, the bright orange/pink clouds were fading and soon the beautiful colors were gone and the onset of daylight turned the beautiful colors to just  plain white and grey.

Here in western Idaho, we are in the Mountain time zone but right on the edge of the pacific time zone. During the summer it stays light until nearly 10:00 p.m. and in the fall it doesn't get light until nearly 8:00 a.m.. We're not usually up early enough to see the sunrise, but this time of year we get to enjoy them for a couple of weeks, until daylight savings time returns to standard time. We don't actually get to see the sun rise from our house, but we can see it reflecting on the clouds

Tuesday 10/22

2024 is a big Election Year

Our ballots came in the mail a couple of weeks ago, sooo . . . 

Today we filled them out and took them to our local ballot drop box. 

We will be checking, in a few days, to be sure they were delivered, accepted & validated . . . . they were!

Thursday 10/24

It's that time . . . . With overnight temperatures dropping, everyone is getting their sprinklers blown out before it freezes.

Our friend, Rob, does our blow-out every year. He came this morning in his iconic orange van! When he did the front yard, a pheasant came running out of the planter. This is the first time we've seen a pheasant at our house . . . .FUN!

This afternoon, we had a family visitor !

Steve's sister, Marilyn, stopped by after attending the Meridian Temple. We had a nice visit - Thanks for taking the time to come and see us !

Saturday 10/26

This morning we attended the funeral for our good friend, Norma (Feik) Kohler. The Kohler's are part of our Bend Family but they both also have roots in La Grande and Union. Rod & Norma moved to Meridian a few years ago. The funeral was here in Idaho but a handful of "bendites" attended.

Yvonne (Doug) Tsang, Cheryl (Ron) Fuller, Terri (Chuck) Hutchings, 

Stephanie Martin, Leeann Scott, Shirlee Carey, Linda Waite

Others we were blessed to get reacquainted with:

Terry, Carol & Layne Virgin, Jenny Brown, Mishelle & Todd Wasden, and  . . . 

lots of Kohlers and and few Feiks.

Each day we continue to do some fall clean-up and winterizing

Steve has drained the hoses and got them put away, he cut back the raspberries and is working on cutting back some of our perennials. Today, with the threat of freezing temperatures, Linda pick all the green tomatoes then we pulled up the plants. We'll set the tomatoes out in the garage and let them ripen. We'll have home-grown tomatoes for the next couple of months . . . nice! 

Tuesday 10/29

This 2014 picture of our backyard Gum & Maple trees came up in our fb memories. They have not only grown a LOT in 10 years, but they also drop a LOT MORE leaves. Steve has a handy, dandy, leaf vacuum that makes the job a little bit easier. The leaves are now falling faster than we can get them gathered up. By the time we finish, new leaves have covered the spot we just did . . . ugh

Thursday 10/31

The last post in October is always of Halloween. We put up our traditional window ghost in the afternoon and set out the front porch pumpkins. 

Treats this year consisted of glowstick necklaces, slap bracelets and life savers. The kids LOVE the glowsticks and this year the slap bracelets were also a big hit. The glowsticks had to be "assembled" into a necklace of 3 sticks. Steve activated the sticks then Linda joined them together.

We've had a busy month and it has flown by. We expect November & December to go by as quickly and that they will be just as busy!!