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!