Halloween Night

Glad you all liked the ghost cake.  Today the elders weren't allowed to go out around town since it was Halloween so we decided to invite them over to carve our pumpkin.  They were happy to do it.  Here they are with the finished product.  Actually one of them carved a face on one side while the other carved the second side.

Here they are with one side of the pumpkin.

Here it is on the front porch along with our handy dandy doorbell!

Then we lit the candle and turned out the porch light.  Notice the reflection of the second face on the wall behind the jack-o-lantern.  So cool.

More Halloween Stuff

I seem to have caught a cold.  In order to not dwell on it I am trying to keep busy with other things, like thinking up another post for my blog.  Since Halloween is the next holiday, I will do something about it again.  We have an elder that just had a birthday so we invited them over for cake & ice cream.  I decided to make the cake on a Halloween theme.  Here he is:

"Not all that impressive", you are thinking.  Well, when it was time to bring it out I put a sugar cube on top of each eyeball, soaked them with lemon extract and lit them.  Flames shot out of the eyes. And, yes, it does have to be lemon extract.  I tried it with vanilla and almond extract, hoping that I wouldn't have to buy the lemon.  Apparently it isn't the alcohol in the extract; it must have something to do with the lemon.

Sorry, I know the picture is a little blurry, but this one shows the flames pretty well.  He got a kick out of it.

Bye bye, warm days . . . .

Well, the weather is changing.  The temperature is dropping, it's getting very cloudy and the wind is whipping around.  I'm told we are to expect frost the next few nights.  Our little trick or treaters may need to bundle up after all.  Speaking of trick or treaters, I thought I would share with you a picture of my happy little skeleton.  If I remember correctly I bought him when Aaron had a fund raiser in sixth grade or so.  I'm glad I got him; I enjoy putting him up each year.

This was my weekend

I hadn't posted in a while so I thought I would share my weekend with you.  Actually prior to the weekend Karen, Michael, Andrew and Emily were in Salem.  Michael had another job interview and Thomas had volunteered to watch the kids while they went to it.  Michael ended up taking the job that he had interviewed for a couple of weeks ago, but this trip offered them the opportunity to look at a house to rent in the town of the first interview (in Bolivar, MO).  They really liked the house and were happy to take the first job. The landlord said that they would pay for the materials to fence in the back yard if Michael will do the work to install it. It's a good thing he is good with his hands.  We got a call from them today saying that they would be moving either this Wednesday or Thursday.  It will take a lot of work to get ready and they are hopefully up to it. They have a friend that has offered to watch the kids tomorrow while they pack.  Three cheers for good friends.

We had stake conference this past weekend.  Alan was asked to play the piano during the priesthood leadership meeting Saturday night.  During that same time I had a training meeting for my new calling as Primary president.  I've held this position before, but it's been a while and the training was welcome.  After that was the session held for the adults of our stake.  We had a general authority in attendance, Bruce D. Porter of the first quorum of the seventy.  The meeting was a little different than I had expected. I thought we would be hearing from the stake presidency and the mission president who were up on the stand prior to hearing from Elder Porter.  But no, they announced that after the opening hymn and prayer we would be hearing from two members of the audience.  Then after those two there was a song by the choir and we would hear from two more members of the audience -- one of which was me!  Surprise!  I looked at Alan and said, "Did they just say my name?"  He wasn't sure so I looked up toward the stand where the stake president and Elder Porter were both looking directly at me and smiling.  I pointed to myself and mouthed, "ME?"  They both grinned and nodded.  I asked Pres. Nigliazzo later if it was him that picked the speakers and he said that it had been Elder Porter who picked us out.  Good grief!

Here he is:

He spoke in the Saturday night session and again in the Sunday session.  He was a very good speaker.

Aaron came for a visit part of Sunday and most of Monday.  It was good to see him; he hadn't been in Salem for over a year.  Pakamer was especially happy to see him.  I think she cuddled up to him most of the time he was here.

Not a particularly flattering picture of Aaron, but Pakamer got annoyed with the flash and got down before I could take any more.

I'm old!

Well, it's official; I'm old.  Today is the first day that my medicare takes effect.  It's weird when you start being your grandparents.