One day at a time!!

Denny is off to work and this will be his last Halloween at his job!! Retirement is coming so quickly! Sure hope that everyone has a fun filled Halloween.  Stay dry and be safe!!

Today I was quite ambitious and needed to make something for Denny's work potluck tomorrow. We decided on some cupcakes and I also made cookies. The cupcakes are all chocolate with either chocolate hazelnut frosting or orange frosting. I am also feeding the missionaries so this will give them their dessert and them some. So please come on over if you are hungry for sweets because I definitely made too much!! Happy Halloween everyone!!

On the 18th of this month we went home to La Grande and surprised my Dad with a visit for 4 days. It was so fun to see him and totally surprise him!!  (Maybe it wasn't good to surprise an 81 year old, but he does have a GOOD heart!)  We had such a good visit with Dad, my brother Phil and his wife Keri, our son Damon and Teresa and enjoyed just being home in the beautiful Grande Ronde valley. I miss that so much!! THAT is home!! We have a residence here in Salem, but that is truly home in my heart!! We also went out to church in Elgin where we lived for 14 years and enjoyed seeing old friends there. The ward has changed so much and it is full of young families so that is really good. Always fun to see our old homes and the way things have changed. Memories, memories. It was hard to leave there, but soon Denny will be retired and we can travel and enjoy these kind of trips more often. Family is the most important thing we have and I look forward to those great times ahead of us. We also celebrated Denny's 66th birthday so we just had a great time!! Looking forward to the next visit home!! There's no place like home!!

The last couple of days I have sure felt under the weather. I went down and got my flu shot and shingles shot on Monday evening. Yesterday and today I have sure felt yucky with a headache and nausea at times. I do have quite a red area on my skin from the shingles shot and I hope that everything is okay. Sure hope that it looks better by tomorrow or I may have to get it checked. I have had a reaction to a flu shot before so I am not surprised, but I AM grateful to be able to get one and for the advances in medicine that allow us to help prevent disease and illnesses in our bodies. I will be fine soon and hopefully not get sick with the flu this year!!

On the 16th of Sept we went over to Bend for the baptism of Amy. We left just after 7 in the morning because Amy wanted me to be there to go to Relief Society with her. We got home around 10 so it was a long, but good day! We are excited for her that she has taken this step and that this is the beginning of a new way of life for Amy and her boys. We had a nice lunch with the family and also the missionaries, Elder Hassell  and Elder Ketchum. (Think Hailey had a real crush on Elder Ketchum!) :) I was asked to speak on baptism at the program. It was a little different preparing a talk for an adult baptism. For the closing song, Devin and Hailey sang a duet, Teach Me to Walk In the Light and it was really awesome to see Devin do this for his wife. Very special!!

Amy with Colton, Conner and Brandon

Devin & Amy with Bishop Wilcox

On August 28th we went over to Bend, Oregon for the wedding of Devin and Amy! This is also Damon and Teresa's wedding anniversary so at least they can help each other remember their anniversary date!! Devin sure is happy now and we wish him all the best and pray that everything will be great for them. Here are some pix from their special day.

Den's picking them blackberries!!

Elk viewing area

Our motel

More blackberries!!

Monkey tree

On Sept 3rd  of this year I turned the ripe ol' age of 60!! I really had a hard time with this birthday and I am not really sure why. It gets hard to accept that you are in fact really getting older, but with that hopefully comes wisdom from experiences and trials in life, getting in shape to survive retirement and making lots of plans for our twilight years!! We have lots of exciting things that we are talking about doing and we will keep everyone posted when we figure it all out!! We went down to Coos Bay and spent a couple of nights and really enjoyed seeing some new country and loved the coast down there. Beautiful!! We have covered all of the Oregon coast now from Astoria down to Bandon so we only have a little bit left to cover! Road trip!!Here are some pix from our get a way!!

Hailey always has fun learning to bake something!!

Concert at the Oregon State Fair

Waiting for Demi Lavato!!

Dining on the terrace!!

Waiting for Uncle Derek to fly out to Salt Lake City!!

Fun purchases for Hailey

Her prize picture!!

Well, since it is October 10th, I figured that it was time to catch up my blog. After the boy's visits and our family reunion at the coast, we still kept busy with Derek home and then Hailey arrived to visit for a couple of weeks. I had the fun task of taking her school shopping and boy are things different now shopping with a 13 year old!! I did survive, but sure learned a lot about today's teenagers!! Here are some pix from her visit!!