Trunk-or-Treat

We had our annual trunk-or-treat the church last night. We came in with   our dessert and then we enjoyed chili and soup with rolls and yummy treats.

Baby Doll and Curly were in charge of games with the other young men/young women, so they ate quickly and left to help.

Scout and I sat and talked with the missionaries until Dog Walker and K&J arrived. We watched the costume parade and then we helped clean up.

So much fun wasn’t it, Stanley Yelnats?

Now You See Me: Now You Don't Movie Preview

Last Saturday, me and 9 of my best buds enjoyed a magic show, popcorn, and this super fun movie. 

This is part 3 and I had never seen the other two, so last week I had my own little movie marathon. Honestly, I loved all 3 movies. I usually have everything figured out by the middle of the show, but every one of these threw me the perfect curve. The best movies are always the ones that make me think and explore new realities.

I promised I wouldn't give any spoilers, but I think you are really going to enjoy this one. Take some friends, don't forget the popcorn (with LOTS of butter!) and enjoy a little magic.

Still Fall Break

We had another good day. We saw a movie this morning, but I will tell you more about that tomorrow. I made and froze tomato soup. I also made chili verde using the extra enchilada sauce that wouldn't fit in the canner last night. I think the kids actually liked it!

I should have taken some pics, but I was running both recipes at the same time and that kept me so busy. I even roasted my own garlic!

Sport is rearranging and changing the garage so he can work on a car inside where it is warm.

Baby Doll looked nothing like a baby in her pirate costume Scout created for her. She took Bossy's boys for tricks or treats at the 55+ housing.

And Skittles's scout football team won their playoff game today so next week they are in the championship!! Go Bingham!

Talk soon...

More Fall Break

It is shaping up to be a pretty good break after all. Curly and I made almost 10 gallons of green enchilada sauce. Dog Walker got most of the garden cleared and Baby Doll sorted her clothes and came up with a giant garbage bag for the DI.

We played volleyball for 2 hours last night. And today, Baby Doll got another puppy. Meet Diva!!

Crafty and Craftsman are fostering her for a few weeks until she has her shots. In exchange, we are buying them a new pup.

Seems like a great deal to me!

Fall Break 2025

This week is Fall Break. I just spent the last half hour looking at blog posts from the last 4 years of Fall Break. We must be slackers, because without my sweetie, we have accomplished pretty much nothing.

Now Baby Doll and Curly have both had practice. She had her last volleyball game yesterday and both teams are looking at playoffs.

I also cleared the garden today. We had a soft freeze that took out some things, but not all. I am just not ready to spend the day making sauce...

We did have the October Birthday party on Sunday and that was fun!

We shared our pumpkins with the grandkids, ate lasagna, and lots of sweet cream pies.

I guess it is time to start getting a few things done.

Guest Blog: First Calendar Collage for 2026 by the Dog Walker

Ever since Dad died, I've been trying to come up with some good ideas on how to keep on paying tribute to him. Recently, a thought came to my mind of what theme we would do for our annual family calendars. Every year before the December holidays start, we always get those ready to give to people in our immediate family. Drama Queen has always been in charge of making the calendars with Mom, but this year, she put me in charge of it. The idea I came up with was each of us in the family would share one month of pictures of one of us with the good times we had with Dad. This is my collage of pictures of me and Dad. I hope you like it. I hope everyone will be able to have the time and interest to work on their collages. By the way, "Little Nate" was a nickname that he always used to call me. And I'll always remember it.

Goodbye, Little Girl

It has been such a difficult week. 

Baby Doll's little Waffles succumbed to parvo on Thursday night.

Today, the girls picked up her tiny body from the vet and laid her to rest in a beautiful spot in our flower garden.

The city has so many rules for burying a pet and they were so careful to follow every one of them. I am so proud of them and the grace they showed to our vet friend who was pretty devasted with our loss.

The only reason I could come up with is that maybe, just maybe, my sweetie wanted a little dog for my two angel grandsons.

Wordless Wednesday - Puppies!!

 Happy birthday, Duchess!!

Watching Baby Doll Play

I just love watching Baby Doll play volleyball! She did so good today. She made at least 5 kills and multiple blocks. It was senior night, so that made it an even bigger audience. 

Maybe it was because we brought the pups over for her to show her friends before the game. They were definitely a big hit!

Something New at My House

Meet Nugget and Waffles!

Oh Sunday, Sunday

Isn't that part of a song?

Church was good.  I bore my testimony and lots of people told me I did a good job. My sweetie always used to say that was a sign meaning I probably was subpar at best. 😉

After church I decided to do up the last little pan of grape juice since I had to cook off the tomato sauce a bit more anyway. As it turned out, I spent my entire rest of the day in the kitchen.

After I made up the last of the jelly, I jarred the tomato sauce in half gallons, so that was 75 minutes watching the canner. It made 4 half gallons and one quart, so that added another 45 minutes. The kids were excited when the Dog Walker and I each made  chicken dish for dinner. (They liked his better...)

Beauty and The Beast had a wedding they were invited to tonight so we have the boys. Little Warrior was so excited to see the sauce we made all ready to go in the canner.

Then Dog Walker brought in all the apples that blew off the tree yesterday, so of course, I had to put them in the steamer. They do make some amazing cider!

Finally, I am sitting here, sharing this moment with you. It feels so good to have it all finished! Fall break is coming... think I will get one? A break, I mean?!

Saturday Stuff

I spent much of my day turning that grape juice into dozens of tiny jars of jelly for my neighbors for Christmas. 

This morning, I picked all the ripe tomatoes. Then my little helpers turned it all into sauce.

I have been cooking down that sauce for about 6 hours. It is getting thicker, but not thick enough.

Guess I will turn it back on tomorrow. A couple more hours and it should be ready.

Working on the New Normal

I have probably been giving my blogging duties away far too much lately. I still have mounds of paperwork to tackle and my garden has been producing tomatoes and beans like crazy. Today I have been using the steamer to get grape juice. My amazing neighbor once again allowed me to raid her garden and tomorrow I will be making grape jelly and I'm pretty sure the tomatoes need to be picked. I have a bunch of red ones. I use sauce more than anything, so I will probably just grind them up and cook them down tomorrow in between batches of jelly. 

Most days are pretty good, but I still miss my sweetie so much. It all happened so fast! It is hard to believe he is really gone. 

Curly played his last league football game tonight at Mt. Ridge. It was a pretty good game until some of the boys started getting hurt. They were losing by quite a ways, so it didn't really make sense to me. 

Baby Doll had games yesterday in Riverton. All of the teams won all of their games! I don't know if that has happened yet this season, but her coach let them all skip practice today.

We started playing church ball last night. We had just enough people to make it really fun although I would have been fine sitting out. One thing I stopped doing because I have been grieving is exercise. I really need to work on that. 

If I could just figure out how to put the treadmill down flat, maybe I could use it. Only one of many things my sweetie forgot to tell me. 

Wordless Wednesday - The Perfect Gift

Scout and K gave Baby Doll the perfect gift for her 15th birthday yesterday.

Guest Blog: Corn Maze 2025 by the Dog Walker

 This is the moment of truth. Ever since the beginning of October, Mom was hoping that I start putting up the Corn Maze for this year. I was about to do it over the weekend during General Conference, but on Saturday, it was so rainy, that the plan had been delayed. So, I ended up finishing it on Sunday while Princess and the Frog came over with dinner and their kids. They were fun to be around and we had a delicious meal from them called Cheeseburger Casserole. After that, we played games together, like it was the beginning of the holidays.

This will be the first time that we are celebrating the holidays without Dad. We're always going to grieve over Dad's passing, but he wouldn't want us to give up on the things he taught us to do, like putting up lights for the holidays. Anyway, there haven't been much new things to put up this year, other than a couple of blowups that were given to me for my birthday last year. There have been some blowups that we've had for a decade, but they stopped working. It was kind of sad to have to throw them away, because they were beyond repair, but Mom told me that I still have plenty of them to show to every kid throughout our neighborhood. I hope you enjoy the looks of it.