Where have all the years gone?

Years ago I used to get so excited to put up the Halloween decorations and always had them up by the first of October. This year I was considerably slower and it wasn't until I had gone to both of my girl's homes and seen their cute Halloween decorations that I decided I needed to get mine out.

Over the years I have amassed five tubs of Halloween decorations and costumes. And yes, I still have it all. After looking at the cute, classy decorations my girls had in their homes, most of the items in my five tubs looked a bit old and shabby. None of them could be classified as classy and most of them wouldn't be considered cute by anyone but me. Most of my decorations where purchased on sale at Drug Emporium (that tells you how old they are), made at homemaking meetings twenty years ago or by my elementary age children. I have a dried apple faced witch that Lonica made in girl scouts, five starched ghosts we made for family night, a paper mache pumpkin jar Preston made and this little mummy he wrapped years ago.
One summer when I had both my feet operated on, the kids and I sat and painted this Haunted House and all the little figurines that go with it. Needless to say, the paint job isn't the best but the kids got so excited every year when we would get it out. They would remember which parts they had painted and would carefully set it up as if it were a real work of art.
While none of my Halloween decorations would fetch even a quarter at a garage sale, they are priceless to me and I will keep all five of my tubs full of Halloween memories and let my kids go through them some day.

Here is one more memory of a year with a little ghost, a waitress, a mummy and a news reporter. When children are little it seems like the day will never come when they will be gone but it comes much faster than a mother could ever imagine.

P.S. Jason would never recommend anyone be a mummy for Halloween -it takes a long time to get wrapped, it's very difficult to run from house to house without your costume falling off and most important, it's very hard to go to the bathroom!

Halloween Cookies

After only one month of marriage, Garth and I had our first Halloween together. Trying to be a good homemaker, I made Halloween cookies and asked Garth to help me decorate them. You would have thought I'd ask him to build me the Taj Mahal! I didn't realize that all families didn't spend days making cut out cookies and decorating them every Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter. It was one of my family's traditions that I loved.

After that first year of marriage I realized that decorating cookies would not be an entire family affair in our new family. So for the first few years I made and decorated cookies on my own; Garth was more than happy to help eat them though. As we started having kids they all joined in on making the dough, cutting out the cookies and of course, decorating and eating them.

Well, somewhere along the line, some of the enthusiasm for making cookies left me and I haven't made Halloween cookies for years. This year I decided that I needed to make some; one, because I feel bad that Preston misses out on so many of the traditions that we used to do when all the kids where home and two, because I just love to eat those cookies. So we decided that for Family Home Evening this week we would decorate cookies. I made the cookies and then, you guessed it, Preston and I decorated them. Garth did come and help eat them though.

The rest of our Ohio trip

Since Lonica is a much quicker blogger than I am and I don't know when I will get around to finishing the blog of our trip, you can check out her blog and read all about the rest of our stay in Ohio at: http://scottandlonica.com/blog/?p=392 she has two posts about our trip.

I just thought I'd throw in a couple of other photos. This one is of the wonderful Sunday dinner that Lonica and Scott made. Hint: If you want to eat well go visit those two! We were glad that Candace came over for dinner and wished we had been able to see Dave but he was in San Antonio. This is the tree across the street from their apartment - just wish that was what I saw when I looked out my front window. I try to console myself with the fact that the leaves will change colors here in a couple more months and they will fall off and then new buds will appear the following week.

October in Ohio

Fall break called us East to visit Lonica and Scott for a few days. While we loving going east we hate the fact that you loose an entire day traveling. So while Garth and I left the house at 6:00am we didn't arrive in Columbus until 4:30 and minus one piece of luggage. Garth got the rental car and I filed the missing bag claim and we met Lonica and Scott easily a little after 5:00 thanks to the fact the Columbus' airport is much smaller and easier to navigate than Phoenix's.

After Lonica's great dinner we went around "collecting" bikes from her friends so we could go on a bike ride Thursday morning. Scott had to work in the morning and Garth, Lonica and I had a beautiful bike ride through the neighborhood, down to the Olentangy River and to a lake. It was a crisp fall day with many of the leaves already changing. Garth and I were revealing in the cool weather and thrilled to experience a bit of fall.
Here is the lake
and here is the Olentangy River.

Lonica and I played on the banks of the lake and talked about all the places we want to go and visit while Garth talked on the phone trying to get through a crisis at work back in Phoenix. On the way back to their apartment we got a call telling us that Preston (who had stayed with Raquel and Dave in Mesa for a cross country meet) had missed his plane. He was supposed to arrive at 5:30 that evening but would have to wait until the 2:00 flight and wouldn't be in Columbus until 8:30. He would end up spending the entire first day of his break at Sky Harbor Airport because he didn't realize that his flight first had a stop in Omaha before Chicago. He had a great attitude about it and got all his homework done.
Scott met us back at the house and after lunch we went on a tour of the city. We had to stop and purchase our Ohio State shirts (we were going to the football game on Sat.) and we looked around OSU and the law school where Scott really lives. Then we drove around downtown and the capital.
It was a beautiful evening and we checked out all the statues to the soldiers of the Civil War, Spanish American War, WWI and to all the famous Ohioans who became Presidents (can you name any of the eight?), Generals or just other famous people.
We had to drop Lonica off at her night class and then Scott, Garth and I went to a great place for dinner. Preston finally made it to Ohio and after picking he and Lonica up, we headed to White Castle because Preston hadn't eaten most of the day and one of his requests while he was in Ohio was to go to White Castle. He got 10 White Castle "sliders" and shared two with Scott. Those of you who haven't had the pleasure of eatting at White Castle should know that their hamburgers can be eaten in one bite (as Preston and Scott can attest-they had a contest) and we all decided that they aren't made of real food.
After we all tried to stay awake and talk we decided to just go to bed beause we had a pretty busy schedule for the next couple of days.

The Presidents from Ohio were Hayes, both Harrisons (William and Benjamin), Grant, Garfield, McKinley, Taft and Harding.

Our 29th Anniversary

Twenty-nine years ago today, Garth and I got married. I had never been to Arizona in September and figured it would be cool by the end of the month, I was so young and naive. I had picked out a wool suit to wear that day and I thought I was going to roast to death. We were about to melt as we stood outside the temple that day, but we were in love and happy, and I didn't realize that 29 years later I would still be living here , waiting for the endless summer to be over.
Two days later we had our reception in Albuquerque, luckily it was much cooler there. While we didn't get to eat anything (all the food was gone by the time we got a chance to have any) it was very nice and we had lots of family and friends there. From Albuquerque we headed to Colorado Springs for our honeymoon. It wasn't the best place to go for a honeymoon and didn't have a very good time, mostly because of our lack of funds.
So for the the last 29 years we have been trying to make up for it. We decided long ago that we would forgo anniversary gifts and give ourselves a trip. We figured it was the best gift we could give to our children and ourselves, by keeping our marriage strong, we kept our family strong. So over the years we have gone to wonderful places sometimes with friends and family, sometimes for just a day and sometimes for over a week. Preston is the only one of our kids who has ever gone with us, because that is really a no no to take a kid on an anniversary trip, but he has gone twice, although he was so young I'm sure he doesn't remember either time.
Several time we have been to San Francisco and Sedona ,

and once to the Midwest (Illinois, Missouri),
and a couple of times to the South (Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee),
but our favorite area is the Northeast (NY, Mass, Rhode Island, Maine). We love the cool weather, old buildings, the seashore and lighthouses and of course the beautiful fall leaves.
Over the years, we have hiked, swam, ridden jet skis, snorkeled, biked, parisailed and walked our legs off.
We've spent time in big cities and small towns, on boats, subways, trains, trolleys, cruise ships, planes, buses and cars.

But the best thing has been being together and sharing time with each other, remembering why we love each other so much and chose to spend our lives together. Life can be hard and sometimes we let unimportant things get in the way of what is most important.
So once a year we get away and try to put our relationship back in proper perspective where it should be all the time - as the most important part of our lives. After 29 years I could have a drawer full of jewelry given to me as anniversary gifts, but instead I have a memory full of days and nights spent in wonderful places with the person I love most on this earth and I wouldn't trade one day for a diamond.
So you might ask where are we going this year? No where, we had a really great vacation last summer and got away by ourselves for a couple of days while we were there. But next year will be our 30th anniversary and I think we should do something really fun, don't you? Any suggestions?

Not too much going on

Due to the request of my father-in-law and my most avid reader, who happen to be the same person, I'm updating our blog even though not too much has been going on in my life. Preston's life is a bit different though, so I will write about him. What will I do when he moves out?

A week ago Sunday we went to a Court of Honor where Preston received a Bronze Palm. For those of you who aren't career scouters, after a young man receives his Eagle he can continue to earn palms, the first of which is bronze after that they are silver. The boy must earn an additional 5 merit badges and has to wait 3 months between receiving them. They are a rarity in scouting because it takes about everything out of a scout and his family just to get his Eagle. Preston will probably receive three more palms by the time he turns 18. As Jason says Preston is the master scouter. I just hope his shirt will fit that long because I don't want to buy a new one and sew on all his patches again.
Steve Beck is Preston's leader and is one of the greatest blessings in our lives right now. He offers encouragement, is a great example and is lots of fun plus, the boys love and look up to him.
You can really tell Preston is getting into this forced hug!!
Last Saturday was Preston's second cross country meet. He wakes up at 5:00 am every morning, including Saturdays to run. Also, they run, lift weights or swim after school every day. He has to go to bed by 8:30 every night and watch what he eats to make sure he gets enough protein, calories, and carbs. This sport requires a lot from the participants, it's not one that kids do for fun. Here is he putting his shirt on in preparation for the J-V race last Saturday in Scottsdale.

With Dieter barking in the background, I was afraid one of the runners would mistake him for the gun but they all took off at once - just a mass of runners. There were teams from all over the valley and even one from New Mexico competing.
This is almost the end of the race and Preston has dropped back quite a bit. Afterwards he told us that going up a hill, he was too close to the guy in front of him and got kicked right where it counts. He said he was just lucky to be able to finish the race at all. That's my kid - Toro Tough!
Here he is rehydrating after the race with his friends. Mountain View ended up winning the meet. Go Toros!
This week has held a couple of changes for me. First, I started taking online classes again to get my teaching certificate. I had started last year and quit because I hated the non interaction you get with a computer. But I decided to just tough it out and finish so I can teach. And the class I'm taking right now is really interesting. It will probably take me two years to finish everything and maybe even longer if I keep blogging. Second, I cut off all my hair. I always seem to do that at the end of the summer. It is as though I'm just too sick of the heat and think if I cut off my hair it will help and it does. At least I didn't shave it like Pedro. But with the hope of cooler weather on the horizon you would think I would keep my hair longer until after winter. Well actually, my hair never is very long and we don't really have winter.

Motivation

I always have good intentions of fixing things up or getting some decorating done in and around my house, but most of the time they are just intentions. When I go shopping I can almost always talk myself out of buying about anything and especially decorating items for my house or just essentials like towels, rugs, sheets.... and the list goes on. My biggest problem is that I just don't care that much about decorating and can make do with about anything. And the fact that I don't feel like I am any good at it doesn't help either. Also, I would rather save my money for a trip than buy a towel.

So I always need some motivation to get things done and this last week I got that motivation. To me having visitors is always a great reason to start sprucing things up (you know you really do need towels for visitors because it is embarrassing for people to know how you really live). My friend Anita emailed to say that she and her family would be coming for Christmas for two weeks. We are so excited, but I realized that there are lots of things that I meant to fix or change over the last six years since her last visit but haven't. Thus my motivation.

Since the beginning of summer I have had this big empty wall after we moved our bookcase to another wall.
And I have had this collage picture frame for probably eight months or more just waiting for me to find a place to hang it and replace the pictures of strangers with family members.

So this week after spending a day shopping for towels, curtains, a bedspread, rugs and a toilet paper holder (I only bought the toilet paper holder), I sat at my computer rummaging through all my picture files. I forget just how many pictures I have on my computer until I start going through them all. Luckily Lonica helped me figure out a system to organize them all but it still took almost a whole day to pick, crop and order the 38 pictures the frame needed.
And then a couple more hours to cut, paste and place them all. I think my motherhood qualities came out because I tried so hard to make all the pictures "fair" - not too many of one child and not enough of another.
And then as I looked at the few pictures I had left over I wondered if they said anything about me. Why had I chosen one and not another? Was it just picture quality - no. Did I pick just my favorites - no. Was it mat size - kind of. But was there some other deep meaning behind the pictures I chose, off the computer and off the floor? Who knows but I do know that when Anita and her family come for Christmas, we will have one less blank wall! And I do hope some new towels too.