Dentist/Brownie Journey

I drove down to Provo on Thursday for a dentist appointment. An interesting audiobook and the familiar sights of Provo made the otherwise not-so-pleasant trip a happy one. And the best reward from my trip to take care of my teeth was a new freezer stash of BYU Brownies. (I'll keep my toothbrush near :)

Hidden Picture

I just finished one of the big projects I started yesterday (a Halloween twister mat for Landon's class party tomorrow). I finally glanced around enough to notice why Jordan mentioned last night with more than  a hint of relief "Just 2 more days of these projects, right?"  :)

So, here's the hidden picture: can you spot 10 projects in the works on this kitchen counter?

(I promise this counter was clean yesterday afternoon!)

1. Halloween Twister mat  (spray paint, stencils, hole punch, paint brush, cutting board, scissors, sticky glue)
2. Jello Worms experiment (rubberband, tall cup - and some straws under one of those piles I think)
3. Morning Dishes Job (silverware tray, veggie scrubber, breakfast dishes, fondue pot...)
4. Lunch (Ellie's paper plate turned paint holder, Owen's tray, Spinach salad bowl)
5. Ellie's pretend Road/ Class book  (long colored paper strip scraps, 3-eyed guy and Lightning McQueen)
6. Tuesday flowers (leftover vase of flowers being replaced)
7. Portuguese learning (notecard taped up)
8. Family Game Night (box of cards/ computer stand)
9. Pumpkin Puzzles (painted craft stick pile)
10. 10 more projects (open on my computer desktop - Don't Eat Pete, halloween snack brainstorming, uploading photos, emailing,  snack bag labels, monster matching game search, weekly goals chart, family budget...)

(Not pictured -- every other surface and space of our upstairs, and my craft room, and my bedroom all looking about the same...)


Time to tackle this mess!

Smashing Pumpkins

more info here on the event

Today Landon and I went with Jenny to the 2nd Annual Pumpkin Toss at Elkridge park.  Several teams of USU mechanical engineering students (and others) built enormous catapults and competed in distance and accuracy to see how well they could sling pumpkins (leftover from last weekend's Pumpkin Walk) across the park's field. And it was really fun to watch! They filled a few pumpkins with candy before sending them flying, so of course Landon left happily with his pockets filled to the brim.   I think it must have been the most unique fall activity I've ever been to -  and possibly even more entertaining than the scenes these pumpkins once filled :)

Park Strip Rocks

The pile of rocks on our driveway is much more compelling than any other toys we might have :)

We've been working (and working and working...) on redoing our park strips and adding some weed barrier to hopefully make them a little nicer. We're getting closer, but if/when we ever do finish, Owen will certainly miss one of his favorite play places.

Little Missionary

Ellie was so excited to find her old (long lost!) hymn book in the lost and found at church that she wanted me to take her picture. (And doesn't she look like a 3-year-old sister-missionary-in-training?)  We were excited to hear the news about the missionary age changes.  Listening to conference, Landon could tell by our reactions that something exciting was happening and he tried to listen harder to figure it out. Frustrated, he said something like "What's happening? You guys can understand all these things, but I can't!" When we explained more,  Ellie (who has often heard us talking to Landon about serving a mission)  said "I think I will go on a mission when I am 19!  It will be exciting to see what impact these changes will have!

Welcome Home

Jordan and I went to Park City for a few days to celebrate our Anniversary while Grammie and Grandpa took care of the kids at home. It was absolutely beautiful and we had a great time biking, shopping, sleeping in, reading, relaxing, and eating yummy food. After a great trip, we were happy to return to our sweet family. Owen held on tight to Jordan for at least 20 minutes after we walked in the door, and only let go for more hugging time with me.

Oh, how we love these Owen hugs!

Snow day

Owen may soon be wishing for these green grass days again!

Our first day of snow came as a complete surprise to us. Landon and Ellie were thrilled to pull out their winter clothes and build snow castles and gather snow balls and make footprints through the backyard. Ellie couldn't get over the sillyness of snowy days in the Fall!  And with an Owen who loves to go outside, it was so fun to reintroduce him to snow.  I'm not sure whether he loved it or not, but for the past few days he has looked out the windows with exclamations of "Wet!" and "Cold!"

Fishing

While Kathie and Winslow were visiting, Landon got to go fishing with Grandpa and April at the fishery. With such fishing success,  he was a proud little boy!

Try to remember the kind of September...

It's been a while -- our Autumn time has been flying by! But, since I so soon forget the moments I think I will never forget, here is a bit of our September in pictures.

A snack time picnic watching the diggers hard at work near our house. 

After school snacks

Early Fall afternoon walks

Watching/listening to Pandora (especially our favorite Laurie Berkner or 'You are my Sunshine')

Oh, yummy fruits and veggies! A favorite part of Fall. (And our lovely Portuguese labels too)

Adding patches to Landon's pants... a sure sign that Fall had arrived.

Campfire dinners and hikes and our first on-our-own overnight family campout

The new look of our kitchen courtesy of the newest climber in our home.

Beautiful hikes!

Raspberries! 

Running

A treat plate surprise made by Ellie while I was out running, with a note transcribed by Landon "Dear Debbie, I hope you have a great run today. From Ellie to Mommy."

I've thought out at least a dozen mini - essays all about running in the past few weeks, since those few minutes each morning are some of the clearest of my days. In college, I used to interview myself on various topics while I ran... now I usually just think about all the things I love about running and revisit them again and again with plans to write them down here at some point.

Of course I can't remember the clever and thoughtful an wonderfully poetic lines I imagined I'd write...

But here are some thoughts anyway :)

- Early this week I was just amazed at the brilliant, bold fall colors. The fresh, crisp air of a very recent rain. The golden light of the mountains in there perfect yellow-fall shades. What a gift! What a sweet reward for getting myself out on what I thought would be a soggy and grey morning run. 

- The next morning was snow!

blurry pic from the snowflake dusted  ipod:)

And I thought I would be a lonely runner in the slushy new snow, but again I was surprised with a lovely run full of friendly hellos from neighbors and dog walkers (though the dogs were sporting new sweaters :) Oh, I love these few morning minutes. 

- Jordan picked up my new (used) treadmill for me today and I'm excited that there is a possibility to keep running as the temperatures keep dropping... but I will certainly miss my favorite things about running  --- neighbors who I don't know at all but feel like friends from our daily 'good mornings' or smiles or waves, the beautiful neighborhood trees and mountains,  the robins and squirrels and once-in-a-while rabbits darting around, Ellie or Owen's personalized soundtracks of made-up songs, my favorite tree to stretch under when I get home...

- I injured my foot a few weeks ago (after my longest solid run ever of 3 1/2 miles!) and had to give up my plan of running a 10K in a few weeks. But recovery has come much faster than I had feared, and I've been thrilled to be back, even without the big plan in place. 

-  Every few weeks I add or swap out a new layer as the weather gets colder. My latest bright orange running shirt / extra warm magenta gloves combo is a new favorite for the instant 'I'm a runner' feeling it brings :)