Halloween

We still have one trick or treater in the family. Grace went with some friends. I drove her to their house and then Trina (the mom) and I hung out handing out candy while the girls worked their way around the neighborhood. There were tons of little ghosts and goblins out tonight and it was fun to see the cute little ones out for some trick or treat fun!

Grace and her friend Ashton are both in 8th grade. Brittany and Avery are in 6th grade.  They were a dazzle of magical unicorns!


Ethan had candy handing out duty this year. 

Food and Wine

front row: Terry, Jessica, Wendy, Me, Hannah, Loye, Lilli, some one I don't know, Malissa, Melody, April, Ellie, Socorro, Nikki, Heather, Suzanne, Michelle, Lacey
back row: Katty, Kristin, Kellyn, Ale, Rachel
no pictured: Linon and Kandy

Kelyn texted everyone on Monday and invited us to have a ladies night at Epcot. It’s the food and wine festival and there are so many people that have season passes or that work there that we all got in for free!! Free Disney with new friends! Who would say no? Not me and Hannah!

We had a very fun time! We walked the lands, samples tasty food and got to know each other better.
We ended the night with a ride on Soarin! It was an awesome evening!

Any flat space

I subbed 2nd grade today. There were only 15 kids in the class and it was so nice. Small classes are so.much.better!

When I got home I found this guy in the clean dishes. 

...they had to be washed again. 

He is into everything. This is the most rambunctious cat!

Our empty garage didn’t last long! Rob’s been on the lookout for some kayaks since we moved here. He loved having them in Maryland and couldn’t wait to buy more. I wish we had bought a house on a lake!

After church today we played games. We played quirkle and scrabble. Sawyer won both.


We had a fun time and laughed a lot.

After dinner we went to the baptist church next door. Rob and Grace fished in their pond and Hannah took pictures of Ethan kicking the soccer ball. Ziva and I wandered around the field face timing Cora and Ruby.

Sawyer stayed home and did the dishes.

I studied the parable of the master and the vineyard yesterday. I was very touched while reading to see how often the Savior’s great love was demonstrated as He gave the branches chance after chance. 

I thought, while reading, about the plant in poor soil that was nurtured by the master of the vineyard and it thrived and brought forth good fruit. In our lives we are often in poor soil, maybe bad health, disappointments at work or school, loneliness or any number of other trials we have. Despite this, and with the Lord’s help, our life and works can be good. We can be obedient and we can thrive. What a miracle and what a blessing this is. 

Saturday

Today we finished the garage. Finally. And by finished I mean got it good enough to make do until Rob has time to build some shelves.


Grace went to a friends house.

I went to Target

Cat really wanted to come but I was not tricked!

Friday

Ziva and I were walking this morning by the alligator pond. She stepped on something that wiggled. When I looked down I saw it was a snake. Two snakes actually. One was a venomous coral snake who was luckily busily eating a corn snake. If it’s mouth wasn’t full Ziva would be dead.

She is not a very self preserving dog.  We also saw two black snakes slithering on the ground.

This morning Bub and I went to First Watch. It was very delicious. Then we went to the school parking lot where he practiced driving for an hour. I think he’s ready for the road. He’s not sure.

In the afternoon we went to Disney Springs to watch Venom. I already saw it and didn’t love it, but I do love my boy and would go see about any movie (appropriate that is) that he wanted to see. We had a fun day.

Later on Grace and I went grocery shopping. We are in Blue Bell country again so we are always fully stocked!

sometimes things don't go the way you'd like them to

and then it stinks.  It stinks even more when things don't go the way your kids would like them to.
This week was soccer try outs ( sort of ).  The boys went for an hour twice this week.  All the players from the team last year came back because the school was brand new and had no seniors last year. As a result they only had one open spot to fill.  Ethan went but he didn't get chosen.  He is sad and I am super bummed.  I love to watch him play soccer.  Last year was such a blast. He played every game and was a stand out player. If we were still in CA I am sure he would have made varsity.
The coach, and most of the boys on the team, are Brazillians.  Those guys are good at soccer.  They also all know each other and Ethan didn't know anyone.
He is being a good sport about it, although he is very, very bummed.
I am not being such a good sport.  I am kind of mad that we moved (although I actually really do love Florida), and I am super dissapppointed.  Ethan is really good boy and he's had to endure two really hard (from a soccer stand point & a friends stand point) moves.  He told me he wished we still lived in MD where he went to a really great school with some really fun friends and great soccer.  There is nothing we can do about it but life is just sometimes really hard.  Everyone has hard things, knowing that doesn't really make it any less hard though.

(insert a row of sad faces)

Luka is always where we are "helping". He is a crazy little kitten.

Rob's back is hurt so they aren't going to help with hurricane clean up this weekend.

That's it.  Feeling sad.  We'll get over it though.

Trunk or Treat

dia de los muertos

Tonight was our ward Trunk Or Treat.  It was a lot of fun.  Most everyone dressed up, adults and kids.  The building was buzzing with fun.

Me and Maria had the same idea!

We had a very yummy dinner.  Then there were games.  The YW were in charge of the cake walk so I was busy with that.

Kendall, Sage, Hannah, Gianah, Grace
Danika and Cami in the back
little sister Audrey in the front

Everyone then went to the parking lot for trunk or treating.  Kids go round and round visiting each car over and over.  Our car matched our costumes and some of the kids even complimented us on it!

Grace and Makayla

Grace got to walk around with little Mac.  Isaiah and Jess met us there and they had  fun time.  It's fun having them live so close by.

my favorite family costume this year goes to the Munns Family

Another good year of church Halloween frolicking in the books!

Sunday

Rob and Ethan are still off working. They had a good, tiring weekend. 

This morning Elder Bednar and Elder Oaks were at their sacrament meeting. So that was pretty special.

I spoke today in sacrament meeting. It went well enough. The YW were asked to sing and that always goes just okay but we did it.

The missionaries and Becca and Spencer came over for dinner. We made a spooky dinner, which was fun.

I wanted to practice making a turkey and a ham ( both smallish ) for thanksgiving when we have everyone here. We tried the ham in the instant pot but it made a big mess. Maybe user error but I’m not convinced we’ve soloved our problem yet.



It was fun having everyone cook together.

It’s also fun to have a full table!

Helping Hands

There have been so many natural disasters lately. (Not to mention wars, rumors of wars, rampant wickedness, good being called evil and evil being called good and general godlessness). The world is in upheaval for sure. It’s scary and hard. There is something we can do though. We can find peace in our own lives and hearts by serving others, doing what is right, keeping our covenants and trusting in the Lord.

Our stake, as well as many others in this part of the country, have been called upon to help. This weekend Ethan and Rob joined with many others in Alabama to clean land and remove trees from houses and to do what they can. They worked all day today and will work tomorrow before heading home.

This is not the first or the last of many weekends that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will be reaching out and working along side of other good people helping those in need. Ethan was looking forward to going. He actually enjoys working with others a lot and is always willing to help.

In the middle of the afternoon E had some problems with heat exhaustion. He was throwing up and feeling pretty bad. Thankfully he was able to rest and get a blessing and take it easy a while and then join back in later in the day. I am sure he felt bad that he was sick. It happens though and he stuck with it and helped all he could. I’m proud of those guys of mine!

The bottom picture is of members of our ward who went up to clean. 

Grace had all state auditions. She said she didn’t sing well and doesn’t expect to be chosen. We will see. 

We did our grocery shopping.

Hannah and Sawyer went to work all day. 

Tonight we are babysitting little Mac while her mom and dad are at a Halloween party on our side of town. 

Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party

We have been dying to go to Disney World. It’s hard being so so close and not going. I haven’t bought passes yet but clearly we need to because we had so much fun. If you have a pass it doesn’t get you into the holiday parties so I did get tickets for Grace and Hannah and I to go and we’ve been counting down for a month. 

We dressed up as some of the feelings from In Side Out. I was Joy, Grace Disgust and Hannah Sadness.  Sadly with my big head I couldn’t keep the wig on all night. I brought a back up blue headband, which was fine but we definitely got more compliments when we had the wig!

It was pouring rain when the party started. Luckily we are now seasoned Floridians so we waited in the car for 20 minutes and then headed out. Post rain= humid hot air. FYI.

I didn’t really know what to except from the party. You only get 9hrs in the park and not everything is open. I am happy to report that it is fabulous!! The crowds are low so we didn’t wait too long for anything. We got to ride a lot of rides!

They had trick or treating throughout the park and we got a ton of good candy (to be distributed at the ward trunk or treat Tuesday so really we made money) and that was really fun!

They had lots of special characters out and about. We didn’t meet and greet but that was popular and fun to walk by.

They also had special Halloween treats. We were actually too busy to get any although that was in our plan. We did get a churro and a Mickey pretzel and had dinner.

The fireworks were Amazing!! Grace and Hannah were on the Astro Blasters in the air during the finale and they said that was so beautiful and crazy amazing!

The Halloween parade that only goes during the party was outstanding. The headless horseman was the grand master and he rode eerily down the parade route in front of the parade to alert the audience that something was coming. It was spooky and cool!

They also had a Sanderson Sisters Villians Stage Show that was top notch. These events really made the party special!

We didn’t have time to look at shops, which I would have enjoyed, and we had to drag Gracie around because she was having a lot of joint pain😞😢. Other than that and the hot night air, which made for some sweaty standing in line, it was a really fun evening. I’d give it a 9/10. 

We fell into our beds at close to 2am which is a lot of hours after our usual 5:20 am wake up and not that many hours until our Saturday morning wake up for Grace’s all state auditions part 3. The price of Disney Magic I guess.

Biology, berries and babies

I subbed 9th grade biology today. High School is super easy. You bring a book and keep an eye on things while the kids work independently. Teachers don’t trust subs to teach anything at that level.  

When I came home I made a berry fruit pizza. It’s Ethan’s favorite and he requested it after we made two yesterday and he didn’t get any.

These two babies looked so cute in their all black work uniforms. They both had good days and were lively and silly tonight.