October has ~flown~ by.......he he heeee <);-)

Wow! I can't believe October is already over! It has been a crazy busy month. It started out with the passing of my sweet Aunt Elaine on the 3rd. Which saddened us all.  Another year older for me on the 4th.....~.tears, hysterical crying, denial~ :)  Morgan was put in as 1st counselor in the Bishopric on the 9th with Tom Memmott as bishop and Terry Monroe as 2nd counselor.  Very humbling for all of us!  (more tears, hysterical crying and denial. :)  He bought a suit from Mr Mac and they had to alter it a little.  Well, it ended up being a "little" too much! Ha ha ha.... It was about 6 inches too short.  He's still waiting for another one to get here.   The cows all made it home off the mountain safely due to an early snow. Easiest round up we've EVER had!  Kole made it through another season of flag football with his team finishing in the #1 spot! YAY!!!!  MaKenzie has been practicing her violin every spare second she has had (which hasn't been much due to the fact that she has been cheering at football and volleyball so much) for her upcoming recital. Although, she does have her piece memorized and it is sounding awesome!  The Millard Eagles football team has made it to the semi-finals. Lets keep it up EAGLES!!  The town potato patch was another success this year. With many of the town's people helping to plant and harvest the 1 1/2 acre crop which, had enough potatoes for everyone that attended and then some! Then ending the month with the ward Halloween "Potato Bash" Party. (and yes the potato's from the harvest were used.)  Most of the other days of the month were filled in with attending football and volleyball games, mutual activities, tending my sweet niece, deer hunting (which was unsuccessful in Morgan's eyes :), violin lessons, house cleaning, laundry, baking, taking down fence on the mountain, helping the other permittee's round up and haul cattle home, more laundry, BUNCO, a Pampered Chef party (yes those are both very important things!;) and most important of all, was even able to sneak in a few dates with my sweetheart. :) WOW......I'm totally exhausted all over again! :) And now to post the pictures of it all cause, I know that's all you really look at anyway. :)

Aunt Elaine's Funeral



My Birthday Cake





Cattle Drive




Ready for the Hunt




Maple Grove in the Fall




Flag Football




Flag Football



Violinist/Cheerleader/4.0 Student = happy parents :)

Town Potato Patch



my sweet nieces, Pocahontas and Witchy
Pocahontas is the one I tend.  She's so sweet! :)




Painted Pumpkins




Owl Cupcakes



Spider Hair



German Chocolate Cupcakes




Ward Halloween Party




carving pumpkins




my cute little witch niece




my cute engineer nephew




Youth Halloween Party



~Aunt Elaine~ July 31st 1933 - October 3rd 2011

An amazing mother, sister, aunt and friend left this mortal life yesterday and returned to the presence of our Heavenly Father. Aunt Elaine has been an example of unwavering faith, courage and strength of a Stripling Warrior, optimism in the bleakest of days and the ability to love everyone she has come into contact with. She has battled cancer for several years and sadly lost that battle. I'm sure grandpa Bud and uncle Carl and her parents were very excited to greet her. A comment was made yesterday that this Friday the 7th would be Great Grandpa Don's birthday and they probably needed the party girl up there for the party. Aunt Elaine LOVED to have party's. Every Christmas she would have a Santa Lucia party at her house so we could remember our Swedish heritage. She also loved having a big birthday party and getting the family together for about any occasion. Uncle Kirk just sat back and let her have her fun. I believe she was the "favorite" Aunt to ALL her nieces and nephews. And she made us feel like each one of us was her favorite. Her and Uncle Kirk served several missions together. I believe her favorite was serving in Turkey. She has a room in her house that she calls the "Turkish" room. It is full of little nicknack's and toys and she just loved when the great-nieces and nephews would come play in there. Her family and her Savior were the most important things to her and I'm sure she was welcomed into Heaven with open arms. Aunt Elaine, we love you and will miss you but will cherish the legacy that you have left behind.



Where Autumn rest upon the vines,

And sometimes shriveled you will find,

The leaves that hold on through the night

And cold and frost they seem to fight

Their fate unknown they pull the warmth

From morning sun and trodden earth.

But must succumb eventually

As Winter blankets cover thee.

So shriveled, old with no more strength

Their laid to rest the garden length.

And there remain with no more life

 Till God relieves them from their strife.

For into Spring they rise again

And soon we'll be able to join with them.

~MEMORIES~

This past week I attended the funeral of my neighbor and friend Eileen Thompson.  She lived through the pasture from us my whole life. She was such a sweet and humorous lady that had a very contagious laugh.

Her and her husband Bill had a milk barn and spent many hours out there milking cows. During the summer her grandson's would come and stay and help with the milking and chores (lucky for us they were pretty cute :) We spent many summer days playing in her yard, swinging, jumping on the trampoline and running through the sprinklers.  She would always come out and offer a Popsicle or ice cream of some sort.  She was also my piano teacher for 6 years which I am very sad to say, I was a VERY stubborn student and refused to practice, so I still CANNOT play the piano.:(  The only way I got through lessons was to have my older sister play the song for me. Then I would watch where her hands would go and I could play it.

After moving back home 5 years ago I happened to go in the bathroom at the church the same time as she did. The guilt was so overpowering that I had to apologize to her for being such a terrible student.  She just laughed and said, "you were such a sweet little girl but you just didn't like to practice, did you." I told her I wish I could do it over.  I'd do much better now. Now I can just live with the regret.

She was also the ward organist and pianist for as long as I can remember.  She even played in church the Sunday before she passed away. Every time I saw Eileen she had a hug for me.  I will miss not getting that hug or seeing the light on in her kitchen window at night. Not seeing her in the hall at church and not passing her as her and a couple of her girl friends would go get a coke everyday and drive around the streets of Scipio ever so slowly.

 I guess one of the problems with moving back home as an adult is that nothing is the same as you remembered it as child. It all seems so nostalgic.

Here's a picture of her accompanying my daughter at the 24th program this past July. (Yes, my daughter HAS learned to play a musical instrument!) :)

Today is November 17th 2011 - Eileen's husband Bill didn't wait long to join her.  He passed away a couple of days ago.  His funeral will be tomorrow November 18th, 2011.  Sure sad to see the place so empty.

~Uncle Joe's Cabin~

Every year since I can remember the Christensen family has gone up to Uncle Joe's Cabin for Labor Day. I was first invited when Morgan and I were dating and have been every year since. It's crazy to think that the little babies that were there when I first started going are now married and having babies of their own.  Sure makes me feel OLD! :( But it is also adding to the fun having the new family additions.  We have gotten so big now that each year a couple of families have to bring campers and tents to sleep in but it is still a blast. The boys (and my daughter) went up on the skyline and had a game of football.  I had fun taking MORE silhouette pictures. :)'  It was such a perfect night! We also had fun staying up late playing card games, eating, visiting, eating, reading, eating, going on 4-wheeler rides, eating and well I guess you get the point......LOTS OF EATING! It's the only time of year you don't need to feel guilty having a piece of lemon meringue pie, or Nieman Marcus bars right after breakfast. Then between meals you can snack on homemade oreo's, corn pops treats, golden Graham S'mores, licorice, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, chips and salsa, Peanut M&M's, rice crispy treats, Tootsie Rolls and whatever else you can a find. ~Holy crap I think I just gained 10 more pounds making that list!~ That would be the reason we cut meals down to 2 a day instead of 3. Since then the 'rate of gain' hasn't been quite as bad. :) Well what fun would a blog post be without pictures so here they are. The first one is Uncle Joe's Cabin. The rest are pretty self explanatory.

~Smoochy ~ Smoochy~

We had a little extra fun after the game

:)

~1st Christensen Great Grandchild~

Skyler looks so dang cute!

Only 4 weeks left!