October 2018 Randoms

Jonah and Micah started working for Josh at the golf course this fall after Ammon moved away in August. Jonah mostly mowed tees and collars and Micah mostly mowed and rolled greens. They didn't mind the extra job (in addition to changing pipe and hauling hay from Grandpa); they especially liked having a steady, expected paycheck every 2 weeks from it! 

Kanyon and I enjoyed the last week of our Spud Harvest break off from school during the first week of October. During the first week of the harvest break, I had gone to visit friends, Kanyon and I worked in the garden, and we went to a XC meet. During the second week, Josh and I went to McCall, the boys had a XC meet in Salmon, and Kanyon and I relaxed a lot more. We went golfing a few times, I cleaned inside the house and out and got lists of to-do things done, and we watched church on TV for General Conference. It was a very enjoyable break: the weather was wonderful, I loved being home and spending time with the family, and having my own quiet time during the day to accomplish things that I wanted to do.

There's been a lot of changes happening in the church the past few months.

At the October conference, this was the biggest change announced:

2 hour church starting in January! Classtime will alternate every other week 

between sunday school and the priesthood/relief society/YW auxiliaries. 

12 new temples were announced worldwide, too!

I weeded the walkpath close to the house.

It gets so overgrown with weeds in the cracks!

I actually cleaned off my desk in my room!

I had to file a bunch of stuff, do some sewing, and

patch the boys' scout clothes. It took an entire

afternoon, but I can see the surface of the desk again!

Jonah and Micah went to the DFY's (Drug Free Youth) Activity at the beginning of October. They met at a farm, and had a bunch of paint-filled balloons. There were paths cut down in the corn stalks that they used as the battleground. They ran around and hid and threw the balloons, and the last one to get hit won! They had a fun time, but the activity went quicker than they'd anticipated!  

Josh drove an athletic bus in mid-October, and witnessed the first snowfall of the season at Birch Creek!!

Salmon's Homecoming week was October 8-13. The twins participated in the parade on Friday. Jonah was on the band's float, and Micah was on the XC float. The homecoming game on Friday night was against West J. As soon as Kanyon and I drove back to Salmon on Friday, we went to the game. Salmon lost, but it was a good game! On Saturday, the twins opted to not go to the dance and instead went to their friend Erik's house with a few other boys their age to hang out, play games, and watch a movie. Josh and I went to the Jackson's house and played while the twins were with their friends. And I must document this: I won the game of Ticket to Ride against Josh, Darcy & Phil--I think that's only ever happened once before! (Usually Josh wins!).

Homecoming Football game

I am the blue circle--followed closely by Josh's red and Phil's black gamepiece.

Josh and I went on a walk one evening to the river and back, and then got in an argument afterward about pulling the rest of the potatoes out of the ground. It's silly now, and we can laugh about it, but sometimes I have expectations and it hurts my feelings when I don't feel heard and then my anger escalates quickly. I told Josh I needed to dig up the potatoes from the garden that evening, but he wanted to go on a walk because it was so beautiful. I told him I'd go on a walk with him if he helped me dig up potatoes. I thought it was a great plan! I could spend time with him, and he could help me and the work would go faster. So...we walked down to the river and back, and then Josh had to use the bathroom when we got home. I started out in the garden, thinking he'd join me any minute, but I ended up digging them almost entirely all by myself before he joined me. He chose to do stuff on his phone while he was on the toilet, which is why it took him so long, and I felt undervalued and angry that he hadn't kept up his end of the deal with me. He thought I would just wait for him before I started, but it was starting to get dark, so it needed to be done. I pretty much yelled at everyone that night. He's since made it up to me, so it's all good. Hearing the whole situation doesn't seem like such a big deal now, but it's funny that sometimes the little things can seem like such a huge thing at the time!

During our Drug-Free week in Mud Lake, we had a few dress-up days. One of them was "Crazy Hair" day. I absolutely love dress-up days! I rocked my pink wig--I felt so pretty with long, flowing hair! Some of my students were excited for the opportunity to have crazy hair, too. The PTO did a fantastic job during drug-free week this year. We learned about what drugs look like, learned why it's important to say no, and even pledged not to do drugs on rockets that we launched at the end of the week!

Salmon hosted the district XC races this year on Wednesday, October 17.  I took the afternoon off from school and took Kanyon with me to it. The event opened with the Show Choir singing the national anthem. I had missed when they sang it at the Salmon Invite (I didn't know they were singing and ran to the grocery store for a few things). This is Micah's first year singing with the Show Choir, and it felt totally different for me watching the choir sing knowing that my son was in it! The weather was beautiful, and there were several schoolkids and community members in attendance, and the kids ran great races! Both our boys and girls teams won the District Title, which was so exciting! Kanyon and I helped pick up race flags on the course afterwards. We alternated driving the golf cart and walking. It was such an enjoyable afternoon, and I loved the extra time spent at the golf course.

Micah is towards the center of the picture in the very back row. 

District Champions!

Jonah, Anthony, and Micah cooling their feet in the creek after the races. 

Picking up the racecourse afterwards...

Josh blew out the lines in the sprinkler pipes at the golf course on the 19th. It's always one of the fall activities that must be done on the course, and a relief when it does get done, because that means the season is coming to an end and he doesn't have to worry about watering the course anymore after that!

We took our last motorcycle ride of the season on Sunday, October 21. We drove up the Williams Lake Road to Lake Creek area. It was so beautiful and so enjoyable! We had such a gorgeous fall this year! I really miss the motorcycle rides during the winter...

My 2nd grade class went on a fall field trip this year rather than a spring field trip. It didn't turn out very well last spring, and I wanted to change it up a bit, and thankfully Val went along with my ideas. It was the best field trip I think I've ever been on it! It all went so smooth, the weather was beautiful, and the kids were wonderful. I think going on a field trip in the fall is much more relaxing and less stressful! On the 24th, we went on tour of the Rexburg fire station, ate lunch at the park in Rexburg, then went to the Country Trails corn maze with activities for kids. It was awesome!