A Quiet Halloween

Living in a neighborhood with acre lots and few kids means we never have many trick or treaters. This makes me sad because I love Halloween. I enjoy the creative costumes and the fun decorations. If we had more kids coming to our door I would go all out with decorating. Last night I pulled out a few decorations and carved a small pumpkin that I grew. For a couple of hours tonight I kept peeking out the window, looking for movement out on the street. Finally, when we had just about given up, the doorbell rang. Five kids from the large Catholic family that lives around the corner smiled and held out their bags. It was hard to see their costumes through the coats and other layers; it's very cold today. After a handful of candy for each one and a "happy halloween", they were on their way. My jack o'lantern is now inside where he is grinning at me as I sip my tea and enjoy the warmth of my home.

End of the Season

It was time. My garden was tired, producing little. Plastic sheeting had protected some of the plants from a bit of frost at night. On Sunday I harvested what was left in the garden then ripped or dug out all of the plants and threw them on the pile. We pulled up all of the plastic and fabric mulch. The rocks that held them down were tossed into their winter spot to wait until next year. It's a tiring job made worse by all of the pollen that was stirred up. The most successful vegetable this year was the peppers - I got a large number of wonderful, sweet, red bell peppers. Of course I already have in mind the changes I'll make for next year...

Camping Out

About a week ago we moved out of our bedroom into the girls' bedrooms after the ceiling was removed in our bathroom. Actually, I moved out one day earlier than Bob. After spending one night with cold air blowing down on him from the attic (the bathroom is open to the bedroom), he decided that moving out was a good idea. The sheetrock had to be replaced due to water damage which resulted in mold. On the suggestion of our contractor, I also moved out all of my bathroom drawers and lined them up in the bedroom that I'm currently using. Of course, there is no room to put anything of ours in the girls' bathroom because all drawers and cabinets are overflowing. I'm not sure why. I have to wander into my bedroom (brrr), into the other one where my drawers are located and back into the girls' bathroom to get ready to go to work in the morning. I feel like I'm camping out!

Finally

Our older daughter's engagement is finally "official", meaning she has the ring. This was hardly a surprise since they have been talking about it for a while and have a tentative date. And, oh yeah, there's a wedding dress in one of our closets. Now I'm free to tell people so I announced it during "joys and concerns" this morning at church (as a joy). I know there will be lots of planning ahead and it will cost $$ but I'm excited for them.

Last night we enjoyed a concert by the Boise Philharmonic. We received free tickets from a couple from our church who couldn't use their season tickets because they were going out of town. The orchestra is searching for a new music director so last night we had the opportunity to observe one of the applicants conduct. She was Brazilian with Italian roots, tiny, and a bundle of energy. We went to the reception afterwards and one of the long-time musicians said she is really easy to follow with great facial expressions. We had a conversation with the previous music director and he encouraged Bob to dust off his old trumpet and start playing it again. He's thinking about it.

Today was the Ada County CROP Walk. After church and a quick stop at home to change we headed to Julia Davis Park, the starting point. There were several hundred people from a number of area churches there to fight for the cause of ending hunger. I managed to collect $255. We walked 6.2 miles or 10 kilometers, visiting with people from our church and the church where I work. The weather was not the best. We got a little bit of rain but it wasn't bad and the temperature was around 60 degrees. I walked the last half of the walk with a lady from our church who is nearing 80 years old (much to my surprise). I'm a bit tired and stiff tonight but not too bad. We had our usual TCBY (reward) and pizza afterwards. Walking is a small thing to do for a good cause. "We walk because they walk".

New Do

Okay, I finally did it. After some prodding from my eldest daughter I got a new hairstyle. So, what's the big deal? Well, I've had basically the same style for over 25 years. I have very fine, limp hair so perms have been easy - wash and wear. Now it's short with no perm. The question is how well I'll deal with it. It was time for a change.

Just the Two of Us

This weekend we finally began to truly feel like empty nesters. On Friday night we decided to attend a program at BSU that featured Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein as guest speaker. The evening began with the film "One Survivor Remembers" which tells Gerda Klein's story but unfortunately the film ended prematurely with technical difficulties. However, Gerda Klein is an engaging, touching speaker. She truly exemplifies the strength of the human spirit. The program was part of Human Rights Month. On our way home we stopped at TCBY. Yum.

Yesterday we slept in, puttered around the house, etc. until mid-afternoon then went downtown to Julia Davis Park for "Museum Comes to Life". This is an annual event but we hadn't been there for years. With our busy lives with teenagers we had mostly dropped going to these kind of events. We saw lots of people in period costumes (early Idaho) demonstrating things such as spinning, weaving, papermaking, printing, wheel construction, and firing rifles and cannons. Some of the volunteers had brought their personal collections of antiques items such as dental & medical, infantry, calvary, and Indian. We wandered through old cabins and homes which had been moved to the sight (and are only open to the public on rare occassions), the museum interior, and the lawn around the front of the building. Of course, we couldn't pass up a bag of kettle corn then on the way out we picked up BBQ beef sandwiches for our dinner.

Today was Bob's birthday. We attended church as usual then I asked him what he wanted to do. We toyed with the idea of going somewhere but I ended up baking him a cherry cake and we went out to dinner. With just two of us we can be a lot more spontaneous. I had kind of forgotten...