November Gratitude

Oh my, I can't believe that it has been well over a month since my last post.  Time goes quickly and my life got crazy busy after my last post.  I don't want to let my little blog go, though, so I need to start posting again.

This is the month of gratitude and the past couple of months certainly given me much to be grateful for.

One thing I am grateful for is that this young man has moved to Utah and is now living in a college town about 40 miles south of here. 

He is living in a large apartment complex with a lot of young people his age.  He has a job and will start taking college classes again in January.   He is also making plans, and saving up,  to go on a humanitarian trip,  possibly to Africa, next summer.

He was going to buy a car, but on his budget, he decided to ship the '96 Corolla he has been driving, from Arizona to Utah.  We have had this car since my mother passed in 1998. She bought it brand new and we have been driving it since her death.  It isn't pretty, but it has been well-cared for and is dependable.  I am grateful Josh made the smart choice to keep his savings for other things, and keep driving his old Toyota. 

I am grateful that Josh and I were able to attend General Conference for our church, together, last month.  

We went to two sessions of the Conference together at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City, and it was a great experience.   We are planning to make this a mother/son tradition.

We have had a really beautiful fall here in Utah.  We have had some cool and cloudy days, but overall, it has been quite mild.  No snow yet.  This is an amazing sunrise I saw last week as I was pulling into the parking lot at school.   I am so grateful for beautiful sunrises and sunsets. 

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I am grateful for this lovely autumn, as well for as for the late afternoon and early evening walks I try to go on every day.  

I loved this full-moon over the mountain just east of our home, which I saw on one of my evening walks. I grateful for beauty like this in my surroundings. 

We have lots of big trees in our neighborhood and the leaves can be a big mess and a huge job to rake up, but I love to walk on a crunchy carpet of leaves.   I am also grateful for the opportunity I had to help my 91-year-old neighbor by raking up all the leaves in  her back yard.  

I am grateful to live close enough to the Salt Lake Temple to be able to stop by in the afternoon on my way home from school.  The warm spirit I feel when I am there can brighten a cold and cloudy day. 

I am grateful that school is going well.  The first quarter is finished and we are well into the second. Here is a picture from a recent assembly we had.  

I teach at a school with a high poverty rate and a lot of economically disadvantaged students.  I am grateful I was able to help out a bit when one of our student's two-year-old sister needed some shoes and other basic clothing items.  I am always thankful to be able to give and help others. 

I am grateful that the holidays are coming.  I know it is early, but I decided to put my Christmas decorations up, especially since we are having a big family Thanksgiving here. 

I enjoy my little Christmas trees and my nativity collection.   I also love having two fireplaces to  center the Christmas decorations around.  

It is also fun to live close enough to some of our grandchildren that we will be able to enjoy the holidays with them.  

There is always so much to be grateful for, even when life gets a little cloudy and gray.  

Remember, it really is true that...

Have a wonderful week!

Friday Favorites on Sunday - the good things of the week

It seems like no week goes by without a few downsides and challenges, but in the spirit of gratitude, I want to share some of the good things that transpired in my life this past week.  I am linking up once again with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for...

• Rain and Cool Temperatures

It has been raining here for almost 24 hours - a cool steady, invigorating rain.  The temperatures dropped on the first day of autumn making flannel shirts, boots and coats all the fashion - along with umbrellas.  This morning, snow was sticking to some roads up in the canyons a few miles east of our home.  I am loving the cooler weather and am finding our "new" old bungalow cozy and warm - just right for this type of weather.  

• Temple Time

In the midst of even the busiest of weeks, I have found that time at the temple helps me to keep my priorities straight and put things in perspective.  Last Wednesday afternoon, before the weather changed, I spent some time here at the Bountiful Temple, high up on the "East Bench" which is really the side of a mountain, about two miles from my parent's home, where they lived when I went to high school.  I am really getting to look forward to and enjoy my trips to Bountiful for some time in the temple

 I love the view of the valley below from the temple grounds.   You can see far out into the distance.

The shining, silver water in the center of the picture is the Great Salt Lake, and the mountain to the left is Antelope Island.

• Engaged Students

School went pretty well this week, although there were some stressful moments as I learned a news spread sheet and grade program for posting grades for our first progress reports.   Here is one of my 7th grade classes reading and summarizing a short story - the Core Standard we were working on this week.

• Lighting up

I was able to find the right kind of bulb at Home Depot and get this cute lamp lit up. My husband found this at a thrift store not long ago.  It is in perfect condition and just needed a new light bulb.  I love this fun find!

• Good news

My daughter in Maryland posted this fun picture of her husband and three of her four children enjoying an afternoon at Medieval Times in Baltimore.  There was good news about Thomas and his fight against cancer this last week. This is what my daughter posted on the Fight Like Thomas page on Facebook:

"Thomas had a busy, but good week of appointments. 

The final report from the MRI came back the same as the initial report, good results. That's officially 3 clear scans since ending treatment! Overall, no new growth since removing Mr. Stupid!

He passed yet another hearing test and only has one more 3 month follow-up before he transitions to yearly hearing tests.

Finally, the endocrinologist said he grew 3/4 of an inch in the last 6 months.

Our next move will be to get rid of that darn port; it will ALMOST be like cancer never hit us.

We're super glad to be on the receiving end of lots of good news. We'll give credit to God and all of the amazing doctors, nurses, social workers, and child life specialists who have helped with treatment."

Good news indeed and we are so grateful to God!

• Girls night out

This week begins our LDS General Conference and the Women's Session is always the first session to take place.  I was able to secure tickets for me, my daughter, my grand daughter and sister-in-law to go and participate in this event in person.  There is no charge for the tickets, but because of demand, they are sometimes difficult to get, so we were very excited. 

We started our night together with an early dinner at the Lion House Pantry which is a fun restaurant in the lower level of Brigham Young's historic home.  The food there is delicious - good old fashioned comfort food! A lot of other women had the same idea we did and you can see we had to wait in line to get seating.

After dinner, we made our way to the Conference Center.  You can see our umbrellas.  By this time is was pouring rain outside, but our spirits were not damped by the wet weather.

We had marvelous seats - close to the speakers in the front. 

Here are the speakers, choir and congregation standing for the mid-point congregational hymn. 

You can see that this huge building, which has a capacity of about 21,000,  was almost completely full - mostly of women! Being here was a very special experience - one I was very happy to share with special family members.

I will close from this quote from our last General Conference which was in April of this year. 

Have a good week, and let  your light shine!

The best parts of last week

 I have made a commitment to post more, so here are some of the best parts of the last week.

We had a barbecue for our church congregation (ward).  The food was excellent and it was fun to get to know some of these people.  I enjoyed going.

After the barbecue, I had to do a bit of shopping and in the parking lot of the store, I witnessed this rainbow over the flag.  It was quite stunning.

I did some yard work this week and found these little flower blooming at the side of the house.  I am not sure what kind of plant this is, but I like these little flowers!

I am trying to get my garden area ready for winter and planting next spring, by putting organic compost down.  I am excited to have this nice raised garden area in the backyard.

In addition to the work in the backyard, I did some more trimming of a tree and bushes in the front yard, again getting ready for winter.

We had some rain last week that brought our the temperatures way down.  I walked Saturday morning, and it was cool and invigorating.  Here is a picture of our tree-lined street.  You can see it wasn't warm enough to completely dry the street from the previous day's rain storm.

I bought some of these long-sleeved plaid, flannel "boy friend" shirts, and they are so warm and comfy on cool days.  I have the feeling that these will be the staple of my winter and fall weekend wardrobe this year. 

I don't usually recommend items I buy at Walmart, but this cinnamon oil is really nice. In a diffuser it smells like heaven in the fall. 

Probably my favorite thing this week is this piano that I found on ksl.com classifieds last week, bought and had delivered to our home yesterday. I am so excited.  Even though I am terribly out of practice, I am looking forward to making music in my home once again! This piano was half the price of moving the piano I currently have in AZ up to UT, so I am pleased to have it.  We will now sell the piano still at our home in Arizona. 

As we settle into our new home here in Utah, I love this quote.  Where ever I may live, I want my home and family founded upon Jesus Christ and His teachers. 

Have a great week!

September Favorites and Catch-up

I realized this past week, just how long it has been since I last posted.  Seems with moving and starting a new job, life has gotten so busy that I haven't been in blogland much at all.  Time to do a favorites and catch-up post about what has been going on in our lives, and then commit to posting more often, so today I join with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five.

Favorite #1 - Grand kids and Grand kittens

One of the wonderful things about moving back to Utah has been living close enough to see some of our grandchildren on a regular basis.  

I loved being with them for the youngest's third birthday. 

We also enjoyed going to the open house for the newly enlarged Missionary Training Center, MTC, in Provo, Utah.

Here I am with my daughter and the grandchildren at the end of the tour.

I also met my two new grand kittens. Here are Creme Puff and Patches.

The three-year-old loves helping to love and take care of the new kitties.

I haven't been able to visit my four grandchildren who live in Maryland for a while, but they started school last week, and I enjoyed this fun picture their mom, my oldest daughter, posted on Facebook. They are all growing up so much and so quickly! I love all my grandchildren and wish I could live closer to ALL of them!

Favorite #2 - School year off to a good start!

School started two weeks ago. This is the junior high where I am teaching this year.

Here is my room...

...ready for the first day of school.

The first day was August 21, the day of the solar eclipse.  The principal bought solar glasses for all of the students and teachers and when the appointed time came, we all went out to watch the eclipse, which was about 91% at our location in Utah.  

Although this is my first experience with teacher junior high (my previous experience was in high school), things are going pretty well.

These pictures were taken one day when the students were very engaged in their assignment.

They were working so well, I just had to document the event.

Favorite #3 - Block party in the new neighborhood

We had a neighborhood block party a couple of weeks ago.

I have never lived in a neighborhood with such stability.  Many of the neighbors have lived in these little brick bungalows for twenty or thirty years. Some elderly residents on the street have lived here since the 1960s.

The block party was nice - filled with food, fun and friends. 

Favorite #4 - Like-new storm/security doors

Our latest renovation project has been to have our storm/security doors repainted and fitted with new locks and latches. 

 These original doors are of such high quality that it was well worth renovating them.

The doors are beautiful.  We are well pleased with their renovation. They look new, except they are of higher quality than many new doors.  With the storm doors back on, we are ready for winter! Well, maybe not completely.  I still need a snow shovel.

Favorite #5 -  Fun thrift store finds

I recently started collecting Willow Tree Figurines, which remind me of my family. I have put them in a special place on the mantle of our upstairs family room.  All of these figurines, as well as the old Seth Thomas clock,  were thrift store finds.

And speaking of thrift store finds, my living room fireplace is ready for Halloween with fun things I found in various thrift stores.  There are some good ones around here.  The clock and figurines in the center of the mantle also came from some of the awesome nearby thrift stores.

Favorite #6  - Helpful missionaries

We are still moving furniture up from Phoenix. Charly brought another load up last weekend. He got some help from our local Mormon missionaries to lend a hand and help carry come book cases downstairs. 

We love missionaries - no matter where we are or where they are serving. These young men and women who give two years of their lives to serving others are awesome!

Favorite #7 - New adventures 

Speaking of missionaries, this guy has been home from his mission in Mexico for one hear at the end of September.  What a year it has been!

Now, after being back home with mom and dad for a year, Josh has decided to move out and move on with life and have some new experiences and adventures. The lease has just been signed and Josh will be moving into these very nice apartments in Orem, Utah, sometime after October 1.

The apartment he will be moving into looks something like this.  It is a student complex, near two major universities,  so Josh will be living with other people his own age.  He has given it a lot of thought and decided that he wanted to take this step rather than moving back into mom and dad's home, so he has put in his notice at this job in Arizona and will coming up north.  He has a lead on a job very near the apartments where he will be living, and is also thinking about getting back into college.  He is excited for this new adventure in his life.  Please keep in him in your thoughts and prayers that everything can work out well and that he can find a job and get into college easily.  :-)

These are just a few of my favorite things from the past month. I know I will have more good things to post next week. Let's all remember to keep everyone impacted by storms in Texas and Florida in our thoughts and prayers.