It's Autumn time..........

I love Autumn.... the chill in the air when it's still warm. And the smell of the air. And an occasional goose formation flying overhead and there honking as they pass by. And the beautiful leaves turning yellows, and orange, and red...... And we had a beautiful Harvest moon the other night. It was still up this morning when I got up to wave goodbye to Andy as he drove off to work....

The sun was just coming up and my favorite mountain had this little mist on it and the sun was on it. It looked pretty. Everything was so crisp this morning....

But Autumn also gives me a bit of nostalgia.... the summer is gone, no more hot sunny days, or sprinklers to run through, or the smell of fresh mown grass, or flowers to water and watch bloom everyday... and you say goodbye to a few favorite things... like fresh garden vegetables, the birds chirping in the morning, and butterflies..... I've been cleaning out my garden and felt a little sad as I pulled my bean bushes off of the trelis. Just made me think another summer season over, and now it's time to live through winter until the spring comes again.
But one thing that really made me a bit sad this Autumn was those boys and men in the National Guard leaving for a year in Iraq. It's really close to my heart this year because Sarah's Dave was joining them. To see their hearts break as they had to say goodbye, made my heart break as well. I know it's not easy. Jim was in the Navy during the first Iraq/Kuwait war and I had to say goodbye to him for 6 months. But Dave is leaving for a year. I hope and pray he'll be safe and both he and Sarah will be comforted. I hope Sarah will be able to keep busy and concentrate on her degree at BYU-I and do well in school. She'll be about done when Dave gets back! Then they can have a life together and share the experience of life together. I want that for them more than anything.

Goodbyes are always hard...but the welcome homes are the best!!! I hope all those that have loved ones going overseas will be comforted and have a peace that their loved ones are safe until they return.
And summer means the end of free days for most kids, and Andrew is no exception. He started a full sememster at ISU this fall too. He's busy doing Art scupltures and paintings. I wish things would fall into place for him. He's trying way hard to get his grade point average up so he can get accepted into BYU's art program. They have a great computer animated art class that he would just love to be in. That's what he wants to go into. All I can do is pray and encourage him to do his best.
Jim had to say goodbye to his job this fall too. His company's contract didn't get renewed. Another company got it. We were way worried and wondering what life would bring. But on Monday he got an offer with the new company. Will be a bit of a pay cut, and we'll have to budget a bit more than we were, but we have a job and didn't have to move. So that is a good thing.
Life goes on, and we all seem to adjust to the seasonal changes as well as the life changes. We grow in a lot of ways, older, wiser, and more loving to those that are important in our lives as well as people in general, I think.
Anyway, Happy Autumn!

My latest Craft project..........

Well, I think it was on August 10, that my sister, Juli's best friend in Arizona's, conjoined twins passed away. It was a sad thing. They shared a heart, and were having little operations here and there, trying to prepare for separation when two hearts became available. The heart they shared was way to big to put into just one of them. But they had complications in this last surgery and their lungs filled up with blood, and they passed away. They would have been 4 on the 20 Sept. Their names were Emma and Taylor Bailey.

Juli was trying to think of something to give to their Mom on the twins' birthday on the 20th. Everyone has been doing things with pictures in frames and sayings and things like that. I had given Juli a pot pourri doll years ago when I was really into making them. So she thought maybe I could make two for her friend, Mandy.
One liked to wear blue, and the other twin liked to wear purple. I thought I would make them if I could find all the right stuff, I hadn'd made them in years. But as luck would have it, I had some of the wooden blocks that I made the bodies out of left. But I couldn't find the wooden balls I do the heads with anywhere. Then as I was cleaning out my storage unit, I ran across a box of wood pieces for painting and inside were 3!!! Then I had to try to find doll hair. I think every craft store is moving away from doll making. But I had Andrew look in Sierra's in Pocy, and they had some!!! So I began to paint. I hadn't painted forever, and had a hard time with the eyes. But I after painting one face, and having it not look right and starting over, I did it! Then I had trouble finding pot pourri... but I found a little and combined it with stuffing to stuff the legs and arms so they smelled good. I got them done, and I think they turned out pretty cute. Here's a pic.

I also made a little block with a saying on it to go with them...

Juli was excited with them. I hope her friend likes them and that they will add a smile to her day. I enjoyed making them.
And that's what I've been busy doing this last week......

Andy's newest comic con pic

Here is the pic that Andrew drew for the 3rd Tucson Comic Con. He drew it in pencil then sent it to cousin Taylor who colors it in on photo shop.! I think it turned out awesome.

Andrew wants to go to the Comic Con again this year. We had such a good time last year when we went. Although I think the funnest parts of the trip were our days just driving.... you really get to know your kids when you are one on one with them in the car all day, and, yes, they get to know you too. We would get quite slap happy and silly, especially trying to find the grand canyon in the dark... that's a long story.
Well Andrew, I will try to get off and go if you really want to again. It was fun.

I feel special.......

Well, I've been sick with a head cold the last couple of days, one of those where you're congested in the back of your throat, and cough and are headachy. Last night I snored so bad I had to go sleep in our extra bedroom/craftroom so Jim could sleep. I had a rather sleepless, tossing and turning kind of night. I hate those. I got up early to help Andrew get off to work, he had to be to work by 8 am. I always feel its tradition for me, kind of, to look out the window or sit on the steps and wave to whomever is leaving the house. (did you ever see the movie "Ever After"? Cinderella does that to her father) Anyway, I decided to sit out on my steps and wave to Andy as he drove away on this frosty, chilly morning, the sun was just coming up and shining right on my steps, it felt good. All of a sudden I hear a whirring, humming sound, and look, and there's a little hummingbird not 2 feet away from me, hovering just above my pot of purple petunias. We sat and looked at each other for what had to be a complete minute, and then it flew down along my flower bed, and then hovered about 6 feet off the ground for another minute as if saying goodbye, and then flew away over the house.

I always feel special and that I'm going to have a lucky day when I see a hummingbird because I don't see them very often. I remember the day I was going to the hospital to get my tonsils out when I was about 8. On the walk up to the door, my mom and I saw a hummingbird, and she said "Diane, you're going to have a lucky day, your surgery is going to go well, and you'll be just fine." And I did! I got to go home right after the surgery cuz I didn't bleed much. Back then, you'd usually end up spending the night in the hospital for a tonsilectomy. So since then, I've kind of considered seeing a hummingbird a special thing!
Have a great day! I'm going to!!

hmmmm.... a Lonnnnngggg day

I had lonng day at work... sometimes the hours just dont' seem to pass even tho' you are busy.....
Last night I went with Sarah to help her get settled back into her apartment after she spent the last 3 weeks with us. She kept crying and didn't want to leave, but once we got up there and got things settled she was excited for school to start again. She's changed her major and is going into to communications/broadcasting. She even saw Jay Hildebrandt at the fair, and he remembered her from when she waited on him and Johnny Carino's! She's in his class at BYU-I! I really hope all things go great for her this year, and she can get good grades and maybe intern with one of the news channels here.
Speaking of the fair, Jim and I were both off on Labor day, so we got up and went to the fair for breakfast/lunch. It was not to bad!! We thought the crowds would be terrible, but it wasn't! One of our favorite things to get is the trout at the "Here we have Idaho Trout" barn. They have great fish and fries too! Yum!! Then we wandered around a little, looked at vacuums at the Brady's booth. Jim really liked one of the vacuum's. While we thought about it we just had to go get an egg roll of course, sure helps with the decision making. Then we went back and bought the vacuum! It's awesome, had to try it out when we got home, and it really fluffed up our carpet!!
We ran into Sarah and Vanessa at the fair, and had to top off our eating with Reed's dairy ice cream! Jim got Huckleberry, Sarah got cookies and cream, and I had to get my very favorite, Burnt Almond Fudge on a waffle cone. Needless to say we were full!! We wandered a bit more and looked at lawn mowers, and Sarah looked at the puppies in the petting zoo, there was the cutest little chihuahua--(not sure if I spelled that right!) But we said maybe when she graduates college she can get a little dog to carry around in her purse.
On Sunday, we did the normal church and things, but I made Dad a cake for his birthday, and we took it down with ice cream and helped celebrate. His birthday was actually Tuesday, the 7th, but we had the cake, so might as well celebrate early! Kim and Ang came down, and so did Brian and Jennifer and their family. It was fun.


My dad looks great for an 84 year old I think.
Jim and I had been talking about changing our storage unit for a long time, we had one on the shady side at Groveland Storage and in the winter the door would freeze shut from snow and water build up. So we asked Trudy Scott if we could get one on the sunny side, and we could! So that's what we did all day Saturday, moved and sorted stuff from one storage unit to another. It was good to get done. But what a dusty, messy chore. But it's more organized now, and will be nice to be able to get into it in the winter. And I ran across all my jigsaw puzzles! I just had to bring them home and I've been doing one all week!! I used to love to sit in my room and do jigsaw puzzles while I listened to my "Journey" records back in JR high/ high school!
And that was my holiday weekend!