Sunday Stealing, Tuesday 4 and Wednesday Hodgepodge

It's question time...

Let's start with some Sunday Stealing questions...

1. Do you have a college degree? 

Yes, I have two Bachelor Degrees - both from the University of Utah- one in journalism and one in history.  I also a Masters Degree from Arizona State University in Curriculum and Instruction.

2. What was the amount of your last electric bill? 

I don't know.  My husband usually pays the bills.

3. Do you have life insurance? Yes.

4. Do you check your cholesterol on (at least) an annual basis? 

When I was teaching, I went to our district "health center" for blood work every year, but I have not done so since I retired.  

5. Have you ever attended a high school reunion? 

Yes, Charly and I, and our oldest daughter, who was a toddler, went to my five year reunion.  I also went to my 40th reunion in 2017, but I don't know that I will go to another one. 

6. Do you have a will or estate plan?

Yes. 

7. Do you remember when MTV played music videos? 

Yes, I remember when MTV first started in the early 1980s.

8. Is there a bottle of wine in your refrigerator? 

No, I don't drink at all. 

9. Have you been divorced? 

Nope.  My husband and I have been married to each other for more than 47 years.  

10. When you were 16, did you play music on vinyl, cassette, or CDs? 

I mostly played music on vinyl, but had some cassettes too.  

Now let's move on to some Tuesday 4 questions.

1. Do you or did you ever have a nickname? Care to share?

My given name is Deborah, but I have often gone by Debbie or Deb.  I didn't have any other nicknames, just shortening my given name. 

2.  Did you ever have a pen pal or have you chatted online with someone you don't know in person?

Yes, I have had pen pals. My husband and I started out as pen pals.  A friend of mine got the two of us writing to each other when my husband was serving as a missionary in Colorado.  We didn't meet in person until he came home to Utah after his mission. We met, started to date and the rest is history.  I also have blog friends that I occasionally email or chat with via Marco Polo. 

3. Do you read a  newspaper ? How do you keep up with the latest news?

I don't read a physical newspaper for the news.  In fact, I'm not sure there is a physical newspaper published in my area any more. I get my news online from several sources.  

4.Is there any news in your life lately?

Yes, there is some significant news around here, but it is not something I'm going to share right now.  No one is getting married or divorced, and there are no new babies coming,  but the news is significant for Charly and I.  We haven't even shared the news with family members.  There is nothing set in stone right now, so I probably won't go public with everything until around the holidays, so stay tuned. 

Now, lets go on to some Hodge Podge Questions.

1. What most recently gave you goose bumps? 

I guess the thing that most recently gave me goosebumps was getting up and having the ceiling fan on a chilly morning.   I haven't had goosebumps from something scary for a while. 

2. What does Halloween look like in your home and/or neighborhood these days? Do you participate?

Halloween is pretty low-key for us now. We will get some Halloween candy to pass out to trick or treaters, but beyond that, we don't do much for Halloween. Our church is doing a "trunk or treat" activity, but we don't have plans to go to that. When our children were little, we always took them trick-or-treating, but that's been years ago. 

3. Pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, poppy, chia...your favorite seed on the list? What's something you like to make/eat that calls for one of these seeds in the recipe? 

I like poppy seed bagels, and sesame seeds on hamburger buns.  I used to eat a lot of sunflower seeds, but not for years.  

4. What's the most (or one of the most) 'fall photos' you've ever taken? Share it here. Just one. 

I wouldn't say this is the best fall photo I've ever taken, but it's a very nice fall sunset picture that I took tonight while I was out for walk.  

5. Somehow we're rolling in to November next week. If your October were a chapter in a book, what would the title of this chapter be? 

I think that the chapter might be named - Change is in the Air.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Until next time,

🍁Deb🍂

Almost the End of October

This past week, we had to go to St. George again to check on work being done on the house we own down there.  We also needed to get some things we had been storing in the shed there.  Thankfully, a new tenant should be moving in, and he may have already moved in. 

We drove through some very heavy rain on the way to St. George, but God was with us protecting us, and we arrived safely.  This picture does not do justice to the beautiful rainbow we saw as we were getting the things that we needed out of the shed on our property.  We returned home safely on Friday, after our quick but productive trip to St. George. 

Saturday, Charly and I went to a coin show in Salt Lake.  Charly enjoyed collecting coins for many years but sold his rather extensive collection a while back.  He wanted to go to the coin show in hopes of restarting a collection, and he found one low-priced coin which he bought.  I don't think he will get back into coin collecting to the extent he did in the past.  Coins are just too expensive now, but it was fun to browse the wares at the coin show.

There were some interesting things at the coin show in addition to coins, like this $5,000,000 Trump Card.  I didn't buy it. 

After the coin show, we picked up Josh and went to lunch at this all-you-can-eat restaurant.  We had a nice meal and visit.  We took Josh back to his place and returned home.

Saturday evening, we had to go to a couple of stores and run some errands, and this was the amazing sunset we saw as we were coming out of one store.  It was really stunning. 

Sunday morning, we woke up to very low hanging clouds.  This was the view from the church parking lot as we went into the worship service. 

Sunday afternoon, I went for a walk.  It was only a little less cloudy than in the morning, but there was some blue sky and sunshine peeking out from behind the clouds. 

Sunday evening, we went to a family dinner at our daughter's home.  We got to Facetime with our Granddaughter serving as a missionary in Norway. 

It was a family birthday dinner to celebrate four family members who had October birthdays - Charly and I, our son-in-law and our youngest granddaughter.  

The youngest got to blow out the candles on the cake our daughter made for us.  There was candle for each family member with an October birthday. 

My youngest granddaughter wants to learn to crochet and asked me to teacher her, so we spent some time after dinner practicing crocheting.  I'm afraid I'm not the best crochet teacher, but I tried.  I love the concentration on the face of my granddaughter as she tries to crochet.  

Later our 12-year-old granddaughter worked on some diamond art and our 15-year-old grandson, and his little sister played chess. 

We had a lovely Sunday evening with our daughter's family.  We always love getting together with them.  

Gratitude:

• Having safe travels to and from St. George in heavy rain. 
• Accomplishing what we went to St. George for. 
• Having lunch with Josh on Saturday. 
• Spending Sunday evening with our daughter's family. 

Praying for:

• Our children and grandchildren. 
• Our country as election day draws near. 

Looking forward to:

• Taking our granddaughter to lunch next Saturday. 
• Having Thanksgiving with our daughter and her family. 

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by. Have a good week!

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

"Family isn't an important thing.

It's everything."

~Michael J. Fox

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Currently during this Mid- October Week

Here's what is currently going on in my world. 

The weather is cloudy and rainy.   This is a picture from my morning walk before the rain started. The rain came this afternoon.  There were flood and other warnings across our state.  The rain is supposed to continue throughout the state until Friday. 

I've been reading this memoir, Flat Broke with Two Goats by Jennifer McGaha. It's very interesting and I'm enjoying it.  I will be finished in a few days.  The book was a birthday gift from Charly.

I've been watching this documentary series about the Mafia, The Five Families, on Netflix.  It's interesting. 

I've been listening to the audiobook of this book, The Black Echo by Michael Connelly. Charly and I are enjoying this book when we are driving around or on the road for any length of time.  

I've been working on cutting back my rose bushes and our large Rose of Sharon bush to get them ready for winter. 

I've been enjoying the emails and pictures our granddaughter has been sending us each week from Norway.  She loves the work she is doing and loves Norway. 

I'm grateful that my older sister, who was in the hospital in ICU earlier this week, is doing much better and will soon be released. 

I'm also grateful that I was able to quickly get routine maintenance on my car finished this week, so we are ready for a road trip to Southern Utah in a few days. 

I'm looking forward to a very quick trip to St. George coming up soon.  It will be a business trip for us because we need to check on some things at our house there before the new tenant move it.  We postponed the trip a few days due to the heavy rain storms across the state, but I will be glad to make the trip, take care of business and get back home. 

I'm praying for our nation as election day approaches.  Charly and I have both marked our ballots and turned them at a ballot drop box. 

I'm smiling about...

That's all for right now. Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Until next time,

🎃Deb🎃

Fall Weekend Wrap-Up

 Here are some highlights of the past weekend.

Thursday morning, we woke up to snow in the mountains.  You can see the snow on Mt. Timpanogos as seen from my front yard. It was a beautiful, sunny, clear day, but our temperatures have fallen quite a bit. 

Thursday morning, we left to go to a town about an hour north of us, to attend the Firm Foundation Conference.  We attended classes and presentations on many different topics like history, religion, politics and current events.  We always enjoy attending these conferences which take place twice a year - in the spring and in the fall. 

Because the classes went from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m., we stayed in a hotel near the convention center where the conference took place.  We stayed there from Thursday until Saturday. 

When we got home on Saturday, we unpacked and caught up on laundry.  Our mail-in voting ballots had come in the mail while we were gone, so we marked our ballots and got them ready to turn in to a ballot drop box. 

Sunday, we were up by 7 a.m. and off to church for the 9 a.m. service.  We had wonderful messages at church and good lessons in the classes that met after the worship service.

After attending our church services, we came home, and both took short naps.   Later, we watched an online service for a congregation we used to attend in Arizona.   The son of some good friends from that congregation is going on a mission and he was speaking in the service.  It was a wonderful, spirit-filled service.  

Later, I went for an afternoon walk. It was a warm, beautiful fall day. 

For Sunday dinner, I attempted to make Taco Pinwheels.  If you are interested, the recipe for Taco Pinwheels is here. 

My Taco Pinwheels did  not look as pretty as those in the picture of the recipe I made.  Mine looked pretty sad, but appearances can be deceiving because they were delicious.   I will try to figure out how to make them look prettier and make these again for sure. 

After dinner, I went for another walk.  It was an absolutely gorgeous fall evening. 

When I got home, Charly and I watched a DVD we got at the Firm Foundation Conference about American history.  

Weekend Gratitude:

• Going to the Firm Foundation Conference with Charly.
• Traveling safely.
• Learning a lot at the conference. 
• Taking walks in beautiful fall weather. 

That's all for this post.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

Thankful Thursday

Here, in no particular order, are some things I am very thankful for this October Thursday. 

😊 We had more rain this week - a lot more rain!  You can see the rain in this picture looking over our back fence.  The white specks are raindrops, not snow, although there was snow in the mountains.  I'm thankful for the much needed moisture, and that the expected flooding and associated damage did not take place.  

😊I ordered myself a new smart watch during Amazon Prime Days.  I like it much better than my old smart watch which wasn't very smart at all and didn't keep a step count that was anywhere near accurate.  It also has a larger screen than the old watch which my old eyes love.   I'm thankful that I got a great deal on this watch to help me keep track of my sleep and exercise. 

😊 Charly and I both had our six month dental exams and cleaning this past week and neither of us had any cavities or other problems.  We found out that our dentist is retiring and his son is taking over his practice so this was probably the last visit we will have with this dentist who has taken care of our teeth for at least ten years.   I'm thankful we have had a good, honest dentist taking care of us and I hope that his son is as good as he is. 

😊 Our dentist's office is very near this condo complex where Charly and I lived for about five years - 2018 to 2023.  While I was waiting for Charly to have his exam, I decided to take a little walk around this place that I used to call home.  I enjoyed the walk and realized that I have many good memories of the time I lived here.  I wouldn't want to move back, but I am grateful for the memories we made when we lived here. 

😊 We look our grandson Miles out to dinner this past week. He works full time and goes to college, so we don't get to see him a lot and we are always grateful when he makes time for his grandparents. 

😊 We finally have new tenants for the home we own in Southern Utah. I'm thankful that we will have someone living there, and paying rent, for at least the next six months. 

😊 I'm also thankful that Charly and I have the opportunity to attend a three-day Firm Foundation Conference, which is a conference about faith, culture, apologetics, history and religion.  There are also classes on health and wellness, so there is really something for everyone. We have been going to the conference every six months for several years and we always enjoy ourselves, meet some nice people and learn a lot.  There will be over 90 speakers and 160 presentations and classes.  The picture is of a past conference, but you can see that it is very popular and well attended.  I'm glad we get to go. 

That's all for this week.  I am posting this early because the Firm Foundation Conference starts on Thursday, so I will be very busy learning during the last few days of the week. Thanks for stopping by.  

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖