thank you. very much.

I asked a friend today at Church what she did for Thanksgiving. She had just told me that her daughter and son-in-law who live with her had been away. I was cringing to hear her answer but she was laughing when she said she cooked a whole turkey, lit a candle and opened a can of cranberry sauce. I stopped cringing and laughed at her lie.

I don't have any beautiful pictures of beautiful pies to post. Which is really too bad because Emily loves to tell me, "I like pie" and I could have quoted her. I ate pie though and it was beautiful.

I am thankful. Thanks to my husband who has given me a life a girl could only dream about. Really.

Thanks to Justin, the boy who arrived the same day I became a mom, who has never said a rude thing to me. Ever.

Thanks to Jenny, sweeter than candy, who still hugs and kisses her mom and dad at night.

Thanks to Geoff, the most ridiculous, goofiest, singing, dancing son in the group.

Thanks to Eric, almost perfect, who use to think his mom knew everything except why there is an "almost" in this sentence.

Thanks to Emily, a fabulous ending, and the only one who still calls me mommy.

Chapter 2

Thanks to Jon, who has not placed a "for sale" sign in my yard for over 10 years, but if you need some heavy lifting he is your guy.

and Thanks to Miranda, not acquainted with bad hair days and willing to clean up after mine.

Thanks.
You're all the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me.

So This is Love

When Geoff left on his mission we went to Disney World. He left on Tuesday. We waited until the weekend. We weren't celebrating, it just turned out that way. Now he says he's going to Cinderella's castle. So there. We would have taken you Geoff but remember how you felt about Splash Mountain?

Elder Geoff has been transferred to Augsburg, Germany.

My Heart will go on . . .

I was counting on going to the Celine Dion concert with some friends Thursday night, but apparently that plan went down like the Titanic. She was sick, so the whole thing canceled. I can't complain too much. Emily and I went to the American Idol concert in September. David, the Mormon, or David, the Tulsan? They were both amazing. In October, Emily and I saw the So You Think You Can Dance concert which was better than American Idol. I have to say that the Donny and Marie Concert that I went to with Suzanne and Janelle was the most entertaining. My only regret was that we didn't go when we were 13.

Rainy days and Mondays . . .

When you are a kid, Monday is the beginning of a long week of school, ugh, but c'mon, when you are a mom, it's the day you get to send your kids back to school. How bad can that be? Even when I missed mine, they always came back at the end of the day. And rain? Bring it on. I can take it, you could say I am use to it. Although, out here, rain often comes with thunder, lightning, wind, and flooding, it is still familiar.

Yesterday was Monday, it rained all day, and it was gloomy. A friend's husband passed away from a year long battle with cancer. I know they will have eternity together, it's just the next fifty years, even with seven young children, that will be lonely.

The sky is falling!

We had a storm Wednesday night. It was mild by OK standards, but nonetheless, the wind came sweeping down the plains and took most of the leaves. Somewhere. When we lived in Seattle, I would look at all of the big leaves on our backyard maple trees. And then they would fall. They would be wet and they would just sit there until I raked them into bags and bags and bags. Like 100 bags, maybe more. It was ridiculous. There is not much raking here when the wind blows. A few good gusts and the rakes stay in the garage.

And across the country . . .

Bryce is a thinker. I love how he analyzes his candy here. Looks like a bowl full of chocolate so it should be acceptable.

This scary witch was seen near Philadelphia. Too bad she couldn't cast a spell on the election.

And for the sake of full disclosure, yes, I did steal all of these pictures.