Fall Times

The ongoing battle between growing obligations here and the ongoing desire to be with family continues.  I have come to love our life here but still struggle with not being with family for important events.  Last Saturday the California family joined to attend the temple in Oakland, to do the temple work for Carmen, the lovely little granddaughter we lost to cancer.  It would have been great to be there, but we weren't.  From what the family shared, it sounded like a sweet experience.

Grandson Scott has his missionary farewell next month, followed by our Nutcracker performance.  So we will be headed to California for those happy events.  That gives us a more relaxed October, which I am using to get our Christmas shopping done.  I'm almost there!  I've even done some holiday decorating.  It is not as much fun when we don't have family to share it with.  But I decided that Layne and I are family and deserve some celebratory pizzaz.  So the house has taken on an orange hue in honor of Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Each night the living room lights up.  Now that we have all of our furniture back in, I love the effect!

Fall has moved in.  I've decided that I like this season, perhaps best of all.  The days are cooling, the leaves are falling and the garden is finishing up its wonderfully productive work.  We are blessed.

Layne's birthday covered a number of celebratory days surrounding it.  Here he is with friend Carol Winterstein, who has an October birthday too.

Here is a shot of our new floor; hardwood instead of carpet in the living and dining rooms.  We got a new rug as you can see.  We like it!