Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year, again, with my family. I'm looking forward to being with my family and just hanging out. I'm not to stressed out about cooking, just cleaning. My sister and her family will come over the night before and she will help me cook.

I'm glad it will be a short work week! Work has been all consuming lately so this holiday will be a welcome break. I am looking into some other opportunities that will provide me with more of a work/life balance, hopefully (although it will mean a cut in salary). I've enjoyed recruiting, but if I continue at this stress level, I will never get pregnant.

Anyways, there's nothing like expecting company to motivate you to clean your house. Between working crazy hours and having Abbey on the weekends, who has time to clean?? With my family coming for Thanksgiving and Steve's family in town for Christmas, our house should be spic and span (initially).

Fall Pictures

I love the fall foliage this time of year. I am reminded everyday, when we go over the mountain to work, of the beauty that surrounds us. This time of year, the drive is beautiful with all the vibrant colors around. Now the leaves are starting to fall from the trees, which means old man winter is looming in the distance. A few weeks ago we went to take fall pictures at the arboretum. A friend of ours from church is a photographer and she took some great shots for us. Of course, Abbey was with us and since she hasn't had 'formal' pictures taken in a while, it was a great opportunity to do it.

I love this shot. We wer just goofying aound!

Color schemes Completed

Tom the painter finished painting our foyer and kitchen for us. We were very satisfied with the results. Thanks to Julie Walton for her wonderful insight on paint colors and eye for decorating. Now we move on to the living room and foyer bathroom. Then it's colors for the master bedroom/bathroom and other rooms upstairs. So much to do, so little time. We'll just have to take it one room at a time.

Someone boo'd us and left the 'Edward' vampire on our door. I thought it was cute so I left it there for Halloween.

Blogger postings not in order.

I'm still learning all the in's and out's of the blog site. It gets frustrating when it's not 'user friendly.' Or maybe it's just operater error, but I can never get it to do what I want it to do for my layouts. I created a draft req last week, just so I could upload the pictures and blog about it later. Well, when I went to post it today, I thought it woudl publish with TODAY'S date, not the draft date. I can't figure out how to move it to the top of my postings, so you'll just have to scroll down to read my 'Color Schemes Completed.' The other issue I have with my postings is that sometimes the 'text' doesn't show up unless you run your mouse over it. Ugh! If anyone knows how to fix the date stamp and the text problem, let me know.

One last YW Hoorah!

I have been serving in YW as the second counselor, over the beehives, for the past year and a half. A few weeks ago, I was released :( I was very sad because I had grown to love these girls. I am always amazed at how the Lord works in all of our lives. These YW are such special girls and I am honored to have served them. They have taught me so much and I hope that they know what an impact they have made in my life.

We had planned a beehive class party right before I was released. One of the girls, Sydney Walton, decided to plan the entire thing so she could use it toward her personal progress project. She did a great job on the entire event. The girls all had fun and I loved having them here for one last hoorah!

One of the ladies in our ward paints faces and she came and painted all the girls faces.

Ashley, Jinnie

Madeline, Elizabeth, Stephanie N., Alexa, Nicole, Sydney, Caitlin

Jinnie

Stephanie

Sydney and Nicole

Halloween

Abbey was Tinkerbellt his year for Halloween. She was so excited to go trick or treating. Her dad (my brother) was off from work so he was able to come down and take her out with Steve. My cousin and her family came down too. We made spring rolls and had a good old time just hanging out! We have tons of candy left over too. I have this big fear of running out of candy so every year, I always buy too much. I'll just bring it all in to work and it'll be gone in no time.

We had a great Halloween weekend with Abbey. We'll have to hide her candy so she doesn't take all of it home and eat it all.

Abbey loved her wand. She was walking around saying, "Bippity, Boppity, Boo...turn uncle Steve into a frog, monkey, cow, dog."