12 on the 12th--October 2019 Edition

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1. Our house decked out for Halloween/Fall.
2. Beautiful Sundance.
3. I love Cinderella pumpkins.
4. More Sundance charm.
5. Cookies at Sundance.
6. Michelle and I, we went to Sundance to ride the Ski Lift to see the Fall leaves but it turns out we were a week late so just had to walk around and enjoy the beauty instead.
7. I love autumn gold.
8. We went to Pioneer Book in Provo for their big sale.
9. We love this quote in the book store window.
10. The books we got.
11. Cute pumpkins at Trader Joes.
12. Movie night to watch "Impractical Magic" at Jen's house.

 P.S. October 12th is Randy's birthday but he and Landon left early in the morning to fly to Phoenix for a trip to see the Atlanta Falcons play.

12 on the 12th--November Edition

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1. Beautiful sunrise.
2. I love reading and listening to the Inspector Gamache books.
3. I went on a glorious morning walk.
4. Reviewing my weekly accountability goals.
5. Fall leaves.
6. Randy spent a couple hours raking leaves.
7. Michelle and I went to lunch at Los Hermanos.
8. Michelle gave me some cute stuff from Target.
9. The book I'm reading.
10. Ferris loves to join me in the cozy.
11. Whitney's photo for Rhett & Linc.
12. A funny text between me and Lori.

Miss Sassy Pants Turns 14

This year Whitney's birthday fell on the Saturday of Fall Break, so she had Thursday and Friday off of school leading up to it.

On Thursday my mom picked her up and took her to lunch and then birthday shopping with some money from us and then some from my parents. They also had plans to pick Bella and Tess up from the train to join them for the end of their shopping outing and then for a sleepover at my parents' house.

Whitney saying goodbye to Junie.

Whitney and Bella came back to our house Friday afternoon (Tess went home) and entertained themselves so much I hardly saw them.

On Saturday, we joined my entire family at Wheeler Farms for family pictures. Usually we set up my tripod and a self-timer and hope for the best but this year Robyn's boyfriend (who is a professional photographer) offered to do a photo shoot with us. It's so weird that the kids are all getting so big! Ashley is the youngest cousins and she's now 8 1/2...crazy. It felt like they were tiny for so long and now it feels like they're all teenagers.

After a couple hours of of photo taking, me, Lori, Whitney and Bella went to lunch at Apollo Burger. I took this shot of Whitney modeling her birthday shopping finds (i.e., new shoes, new jeans and new sweater) which she is thrilled about.

She loves, loves, loves these Sassy shoes!

Lori wore her sunglasses during lunch because she was next to a bright window. She could have closed the blinds but she and Bella said the sun felt nice. It was funny to sit across from her wearing glasses though.

Next we went to Color Me Mine (just like last year).

Lori took this fabulous photo of the girls.

Lori and I both painted mugs.

I painted this mug (which will end up being a bright turquoise after it's fired), Bella painted the bulldog, Lori did an ombre affect on her mug, and Whitney did a really cute little sugar bowl, lid and small spoon which she'll probably eat cereal out of.

Later that evening we got together at Lori's house to finally celebrate her birthday (which was September 8th), Landon's birthday (which was August 10th), Andrew's birthday (which was September 29th), Randy's birthday (which was October 12th) and Whitney's birthday...apparently we've had a really hard time getting everyone together. Robyn and Lyman (boyfriend) ended up having a couple Halloween party to be at and Landon ended up going to the BYU-Nevada game, but other than that we were all there.

The spread of gifts. Lori wanted work done for her gifts so Adam and Randy hung a couple heavy duty items, mounted her flat screen tv to the wall and fixed a toilet.

We had cheesecake AND the Oreo Ice Cream dessert.

All lined up so we could sing to them.

We relit candles and put them on Andrew's piece of dessert so he could blow them out and spray as needed.

Week in Review--Phone Style

 I love listening to podcasts when I work in the yard.

We had the most perfect day of weather on Tuesday.

 I do A LOT of updating records and printing for primary.

Whitney and I saw a stunning sunrise on the way to school.

A trip to Costco to stock up on some essentials since Adam and Amy's girls are coming to stay for the weekend.

 Fabric shopping with Michelle.

 

This is what I bought to make fabric coasters for some co-workers.

We froze our nards off at Landon's game on Thursday.

 

I passed a pumpkin patch and saw this pumpkin on a chair so I flipped a U-turn so I could take a picture of it.

 I saw these too.

One of my visiting teachers felt badly that they hadn't been able to come see me this month so she printed a message and brought me a cinnamon braid, she even delivered it to me at school!

I had a delightfully rainy car lunch on Friday. (I don't usually work on Fridays but one of the other secretaries needed to switch this week.)

JCWs with some of the cousins.

Andrew LOVES going to JCWs. He always eats fries and a Cookies and Cream shake.

My dad at JCWs.

I took this self-portrait at a red light on the way home. It was a pretty funny car ride with all of us (except Andrew) singing "Roar" by Katy Perry.

My mom gave Lori and I a little sewing lesson...Lori and I have no skills.

Lori, Andrew and Suki.

 

 They look so cute together.

I enjoy fabric, and like the idea of sewing. But even this very basic project has me flustered.

This is a text exchange with Michelle about the sewing.

We set our sewing aside to take the girls to the AFHS Fall Festival and we finally got to try the goodness of the Waffle Luv truck.

Bella and Tess braved the Sumo suits and provided some comedy.

I spied Landon and Kassidy from a distance and he caught me.

Tuesday Tidbits

It wouldn't kill you to comment...I'm just saying.

Last Tuesday Michelle and I were able to meet up for pedicures at almost the last minute (i.e., arranged by text an hour before). We got there 15 minutes after the place opened so the scent of incense was overpowering! I was mouth-breathing immediately and feared I'd get a headache, but I ended up being fine. It must have been strongest by the front doors where we stood for a long time choosing our polish colors. 

After our pedicures I had to go to the Scout Store to get all the awards for the biggest Court of Honor of the year. Technically I was released a month ago from being the Advancement Chair Person but they hadn't called anyone else yet and I told them I'd do this last one. It ended up being quite the run around getting everything taken care of though so what normally takes 10 minutes at the store took 30. 

The lengthy visit at the store made me late for Lori's birthday lunch at Kneader's, but I texted them my order so it was waiting for me when I arrived.

Whitney made this for Lori's birthday.

I spent much of the evening organizing, labeling and prepping the merit badges for the Court of Honor.

We had deliciously Fall-like weather all week with cool temperatures and rain off and on. I absolutely loved it!

Whitney made a Barbie washer and dryer out of Pop Tart boxes (which I bought especially so she could make these). The shelf is an iPhone box. I wish I looked this cute doing laundry!

I finished reading Revolutionary Road and just loved it. Lori had been raving about it for so long that I finally borrowed her book and gave it a whirl. Now I'm bummed that I didn't have my own copy because there were so many poignant passages I would have marked. I think this is one I'll be rereading. I loved all the delicate nuances going on in the marriages portrayed and I felt comforted to know I'm not alone in some of my less than kind thoughts sometimes. Marriage relationships are complicated and we are all such flawed beings that often what's happening in a conversation is not really what's happening at all; this book beautifully illustrated this complicated dynamic.

"Both the Campbells made conscientious little clucks of amusement, and Shep discreetly inspected his watch. But the worst part--the worst part of the whole weekend, if not of his life to date--was the way April was looking at him. He had never seen such a stare of pitying boredom in her eyes.

It haunted him all night, while he slept alone; it was still there in the morning, when he swallowed his coffee and backed down the driveway in the crumpled old Ford he used for a station car. And riding to work, one of the youngest and healthiest passengers on the train, he sat with the look of a man condemned to a very slow, painless death. He felt middle-aged."
 page 71

Landon's "girl friend" Kassidy was sick on Sunday so he made her some Muddy Buddies (his favorite treat), wrote her a card and gave her a bottle of Powerade as well. We dropped it off after church. What a sweet guy he is! She was giddy about it and posted a picture of it on Instagram and then came into the office at school yesterday to thank me for dropping it off.