Halloween fun

Rachel Summers, Emily Park, Rachel Brown, Sidney Olcott, Emma Thiessen, Anna Sanford, and Emma

Emma and her friends decided to go Trick-or-Treating together again this year, and they had so much fun!  Emma and Anna made My Little Pony costumes with appliqued felt and fabric paint, and the room was covered in glitter from their tutus.

Maren and her friends had a party and watched some movies at Lauren Holmstead's house. She made a fantastic gypsy and even had misfortunes to pass out to her friends in exchange for candy!  Her misfortunes were things like, "The end is near, and it's all you fault!" and "You are about to be very sick from eating too much candy."

Popeye, the Sailor Man

 

Every year in October my book club friends have a Halloween party with our husbands.  It's always fun to get together and visit, and it's great to have a reason to dress up.  This year I decided to make Popeye and Olive costumes.  Maren helped me make the ridiculously large arms, and I think she really liked the powerful feeling that came with them because she didn't want to take them off!  Here's the finished product:

I Yam What I Yam

 Everyone else in our book club looked great, too!

Crystal (8 months pregnant) and Danny Miles

Cherri and Jeremy Porter

Hailey and Jason Dye

Rita and Nick Peck

McKenzie and Gary Johnson

Julie and Steve Brown

Teaching Citizenship

Every three months I get to go to a citizenship ceremony at our federal courthouse.  I love this amazing opportunity because there is a special spirit there, watching people who recognize that America is a blessed land and want to be a part of it enough to go through the legal process and work hard.  I love to hear the judges talk about citizenship and patriotism. 

Recently, my friend and co-worker, Farhana Hibbert, was asked to speak at the ceremony and share her own citizenship experience.  She's originally from Pakistan and emigrated with her family to Puerto Rico during the Indo-Pakistan conflict in 1971.  They came to the United States when she was 12, and in 1989 she met her husband and joined the LDS church.  She was a perfect speaker for the citizenship ceremony. 

Maren, Sarah Hibbert, Emma, and Priscilla Hibbert sitting in the jury box.  Renee Richardson from Senator Risch's office in back.

Since she was speaking, we decided to volunteer our daughters for a medley of patriotic songs, and they did a great job! I've sat through many musical numbers at these events, but I've never heard one as beautiful!  Judge Randy Smith was very impressed and took a picture with them.

 After the ceremony we took them outside to ring the Liberty Bell.  Each state received two of these bells in 1976, cast from the original mold, and our federal courthouse has one out front (the other is in Boise at the Capitol). The judge always encourages the new citizens to ring the bell loudly for freedom on their way out, and we thought our girls should too.  

I love giving my kids opportunities to see how blessed they are to live in this great country.  Too often we take what we have for granted, and because of this, some of our freedoms are slowly slipping away, but I hope mine will always be good citizens in a great nation.

First Flight

 

Maren was chosen to be part of a regional 4-H team that trains 4-H youth and leaders in using technology.  As part of the deal, they gave her an I-pad to use for two years (which she has loved!), and they sent her to a training in New Mexico.  She had lots of fun, learned some great tips for using the I-pad for photography, and most exciting......she got to fly for the first time!  She loved it and is ready to go somewhere (anywhere!) so she can fly again!

Our Little Catsicle

Meet DC (short for Darn Cat or Devil Cat, depending on his naughtiness level) the LUCKIEST CAT ALIVE!

  

We adopted him from my parents this summer because he was so cute that we couldn't resist him (alright, it was mostly me)!  He's been a crazy addition to our family and drives Milly, our cat of 8 years, insane! Olive loves her, though, and they wrestle all the time.

 Last night we were worried when we couldn't find him before bedtime. We'd been remodeling our kitchen and the doors were open a lot, so we were afraid he got outside and ran away. We looked around the house and neighborhood until 11:30 and then went to bed, hoping he'd come home in the morning. Del even got up at 4:30 to check the front and back doors, but he wasn't there. At 7:30 this morning, Del walked past our food storage room and thought he heard a faint meow. He looked all over but couldn't find DC. Finally he realized it was coming from the freezer! DC was lying in a tiny spot on some frozen peas, a little chilly but otherwise okay. He was in my upright freezer for over 12 hours! We were so happy the little guy was fine. He and Olive immediately started wrestling, so there probably aren't any lasting effects. 

So curiosity really did almost kill the cat! DC has jumped into our refrigerator a couple of times in the past when I've opened it, but I've always seen him do it. This time he must have jumped in the basement freezer after I grabbed something for dinner and I didn't see him. He was almost a catsicle!

Devin thinks we should change his name to Jack Frost, but I'm not sure my dad would like having a cat named after him.

Happy 17th, Maren!

Maren decided that her birthday present for herself was that she would finally take the driver's test and get her license!  She's been ready to take it since Spring, but she was nervous about taking it and kept putting it off.  She only made one error in her road skills test and aced the written exam, so we decided to reward her with a new car!  Here it is! 

Actually, this is one of the trucks on the Symons farm, but she said she would be thrilled to have it!  She's not picky, I guess.  Del said he used to drive this old truck when he was about 14 and worked on the farm.  It has the starter on the floor, so it might take Maren a little practice before she gets the hang of it. 

As usual with teenage girls, most of Maren's birthday presents were clothes.  I told her to try them on so I could see if they fit, so she did ... all at the same time. Lovely outfit!

 She loved her Doctor Whoville shirt with the 11 doctors around the tardis.  Emma even made her a tardis gift box to wrap it in.

 Emma's already begging to borrow the fox in glasses sweater.  Goofy but cute!  Kind of like Maren.:)

A Huge Surprise

For six weeks, Myndee, Cherri, and I planned the perfect present for our friend's 40th birthday.  Two years ago, Michelle moved to Wyoming and left everyone behind.  She loves to come back and visit, but it's not as often as any of us would like, so we decided to drive the 7 hours to surprise her!  We let her husband know right away so he could make sure she didn't plan anything else for that weekend.  Then we called her new best friend, JaNeen, and asked her to plan a lunch at a local restaurant with a few of her new friends.  We were so afraid that someone would say something and ruin the surprise, but amazingly enough we pulled it off!  We showed up at her daughter's swimming competition, and at first she didn't seem to recognize us.  She stared blankly for a minute and then started to scream!  Fun, fun, fun!

Myndee, Sally, Michelle, and Cherri

 We had a great lunch at the local Mexican restaurant and had lots of fun laughing and telling Michelle stories!  It's amazing how quickly you make friends.  I really like JaNeen, Tamara, and Dana and I'm glad Michelle has great new friends in her town.

I made Michelle a photo scrapbook with pictures and letters from about 20 of her Pocatello friends telling her what they loved best about her.  People wrote such nice things about her that I'm thinking of moving so I'll be missed! :)

 

 Michelle took us to see Dirty Sally's, a nearby souvenir shop, but we were too late ... it had already closed.  I was really sad because I could see Dirty Sally t-shirts inside and I really wanted one, but we had fun taking pictures instead.  I guess I'll have to visit again just so I can have a great souvenir!

Good friends are the best gift in life, so it was really fun to surprise Michelle for her 40th birthday.  She's like a sister to me, and no matter how far she moves away, we'll always have that connection. Welcome to the 40 Club, Michelle!