October Update Revisited

Halloween!  I like this holiday.  I like the time of year, with its brisk weather. I like mildly scary stuff (not the awful stuff).  I LOVE costumes, although I haven't dressed up now for several years.  I LOVE seeing the kids in their costumes, all excited to try out a new persona for a few hours.  I get a big kick out of watching to see what kids choose to dress up as.  Remember when that was the toughest decision you had to make?  My school had a family Halloween dance put on by the PTO.  I carved a couple of Jack-o-lanterns and volunteered to help.  It was so much fun but I couldn't stay.  I went out to my car to get my costume and discovered that my car wouldn't start.  My co-worker offered to jump start it for me but she was leaving so I figured I'd better take her up on it and and just get home.  Last weekend, Monte took me to a Gophers game at the new TCF stadium on the University of Minnesota Campus. Anna and Jeff came with us. It was really pleasant.  The weather had been rainy and cold all week and the forecast said it would rain and be in the 50s.  I dressed warm, so of course I was dressed too warm.  The sun came out and it was beautiful!  The game was fun to watch - despite the fact that the Gophers lost. I ate hot dogs and popcorn and pop - woo hoo!  After the game we went out for curry.  We discovered that Anna does NOT like curry but Jeff just may.  Monte, on the other hand was not impressed with the restaurant I picked.  Ah well, my curry was great.  I enjoyed spending time with my husband and brother and sister in law.

October Update

I really do want to write more regularly but I'll have to settle for what I can get at this point.  First, a brief tribute to my first born.  Yesterday was her birthday.  She's 32! I can't believe it.  

This is my Anna, Anna-banana-sketti to her childhood friends.  She is smart and beautiful and loving.  She is loyal to a fault.  Anna is the caretaker of the family.  She's the one I call when I'm worried about one of her siblings because she generally already knows what is up with them. Anna walked at 9 months old and could read before she entered kindergarten. I couldn't seem to give her information fast enough. One of my favorite stories about my little Anna is about her first day of Kindergarten.  Her new Kindergarten teacher found her standing and staring at a bulletin board.  Of course her teacher asked her if she wanted it read to her.  Anna's response "No I've already read it.  Can I read it to you?" Now Anna is a college graduate, working in a research lab.  She and Stan will be moving to Tempe, Arizona in the next couple of weeks.  She hand her sister have lived in Salt Lake City since we all moved there together in 1991.  They have been really close so I'm wondering how they will do after they move apart from each other.

My job has been really tough this fall.  I still love it but I can't seem to get my head above water and I hate the feeling.  I have worked evenings and weekends, gone to work early, and stayed late every day since the beginning of school.  Yesterday, I got up early and gathered up all of the mending in my closet and settled in at my sewing machine.  After that I did all our laundry, baked some cookies, and went grocery shopping with my hubby.  I intended to get some school paperwork done tonight but decided to blog instead.  It feels great.  My sweet husband gave me a blessing today and I think I'm going to find my balance now.

My Summer Fun

Well, I've been having a great time with my summer.  I dragged out the boxes of pictures of my children that I've neglected for 30 years and have been sorting through them.  I'm having a blast. I noticed, however, that I have to be careful about how long I spend going through them.  I tend to get melancholy.  I start to miss my children so much, and then I start to think about things "I wish I'd done differently".  Not productive, let me tell you.  The best part of the whole thing is that I've gone to a couple of crops at Archivers and done a few scrapbook pages AND I've scanned a bunch of pictures and posted them to an online file.  I feel so good about this.  It means that the pictures are safe from destruction, (a lot of pictures were lost in the fire in '91) and it provides a chance for my kids to enjoy them.  They certainly haven't done anyone any good sitting in those boxes.  Bill and Stephanie taught me how to do a video conference so we've been able to do a couple of those and visit with my grandbabies.  Seriously fun.  Technology ROCKS!  Anyway.  the other thing I've been doing with my summer is tending my garden and canning the proceeds. The garden is a mess the weeds have completely taken over the herb sections and the pumpkins are literally growing right through the gate and across the lawn!  Monte keeps saying "just cut it back, we only need ONE pumpkin anyway.  Far too late for that and I'm fascinated by the thing.  It's really amazing.  The cucumbers and zucchini are producing well, too.