It's almost here!

I worked this week until Thursday.
As a matter of fact,
I think we were the only district in the Magic Valley that went to school on Thursday.

Just thinking about spending the week before Christmas
with 18 seven year olds was over whelming.

I thought about what I used to do with my own kids.

We had a Santa day.

They had written to Santa,

and he wrote back.

I had a parent tell me that their daughter was so excited about the letter

that you would have thought 'that Jesus had come to our house that day.'

They were good letters.

Turns out Santa knew something personal about every student.

We did 2 days of Reindeer writing and activities.

Concluding with reindeer cookies.

Okay, so these didn't really work out,
but they were good.

We went across the icy parking lot and street
to a Senior living center and sang for them.

I saw some big smiles from some grandpas and grandmas.

We did a readers theater.

It was a little rough,

but they kinda liked it.

Charlie the Veteran, who lives across the street,

gave every student in our school an ornament.

My class gave him a group hug.

He cried and said, "I'm old, but I have never experienced any thing like that before."

It may of been painful.

And Santa came.

 But most important;
My kids were good.
I felt blessed to have spent a week with them.

I thought it would be a horrible week,
but I was wrong.


Merry Chritsmas!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

I'm telling you right now, this post is ridiculous.

I feel the need to be ridiculous sometimes.

I would like to take a minute and talk about my favorite Christmas Song.

It is, hands down,

Santa Clause is coming to Town.

I loved it as a kid,

but I had some real concerns because

I was pouter.

Would he come or not?

Then when I grew a little older,

Bruce Springsteen came out with this version.

I love this.

I love it when my son Scott sings it.

It is my goal this year to record it without my cackle or voice in it.

For the record, I haven't been able to do it to this point.

And then there is this version by the Carpenters.

You can't be my age without a little Carpenters love in you.

I had no idea when I was a child that I grow up to become the Santa Claus.

A job I loved and took seriously.

At any rate, I hope you take some time for some fun this Christmas.

Where does the time go?

It has been a while since I posted.  

I'm not sure where time goes.

We had a very nice trip to California last weekend.

The weather was nice.

The company was nice.

And the food was wonderful.

My son and his family flew in from Canada.

It was soooo good to see them.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at my sister's home.

I am truly grateful for my family, friends, and faith.

Keith's girls are always in motion.

Here is my dad, brother and his sons.

My mom thought it might be fun to get a picture with them

and the greats. 

We tried. One is missing. He had a meltdown.

I figure if only one had meltdown, we did okay.

We ate outside.

It was a lovely day.

The kids sat on one end of the table,

and the adults on the other, 

but it was one table.

My parents sat in the center.

-by the heater-

We had some park time.

And Lucy had a birthday.

And this was our view on the way back to Idaho. 

Love the Sutter Buttes.

Presidential Election

I debated about writing this.

But, hey, it's my blog, so I can post my feelings.

I was more than disappointed in the election results.

I have never claimed to be a Republican,

And I don't really like Hillary,

so I'm not sure if any result would have been a good one.

But let me say this:

I felt like Hillary lost because Americans 

would rather vote for any man,

before they would vote for a woman.

I felt a little stepped on.

Second,

When I think of Donald Trump as the President of the United States,

I get a sick feeling.

I'm feeling better today,

but it still makes me sick.

Now,

Let's move on.

Let's pray for better candidates in the next election.

Let's keeping standing up for what is right.

And let's pray for those idiots in Washington,

sorry that slipped

the leaders of the greatest Nation in the World.

And lastly,

Let's understand that there are people who are really scared.

They are scared of their family being deported

and that their way of life will change.

We need to be empathetic and positive.

God Bless America.

Fall Colors

I can't help it,

I love fall colors.

Okay, to be honest, 

around here it's mostly,

yellow and brown.

But they are pretty none the less.

We went for a walk in the canyon yesterday.

I have always loved these,

and the crunch of leaves,

It's just a good time of year.

Road Trips and Flowers

I went to Yuba City to visit lady weekend.

This is the only picture I took.

I had a great time seeing my nieces.  

Then I came home to a wet week here.

My flowers are loving it.

The one is front is the flower that got delivered secretly.

It grew.

The middle one was a little one I bought in July for .99 cents.

It grew.

There is something on my mind

I really don't like to talk about politics, 

but I have a couple of things on my mind.

Why I can't voter for Trump.

1.  He calls people names.

It is immature and unprofessional.

These are two characteristics that I feel are not presidential. 

2. He's not a Republican.

Neither am I, but I'm not pretending to be one.

3.  He has a 9 year old son.

Have you ever seen him with him?

Have you ever heard him talk about him?

It bothers me.

These are my top three.  There are 300 more.

Why I can't vote for Clinton.

1.  I have always felt like she and Bill were Felons.

Their time in the White House was interesting.

2.  I think she has the art lying down to perfection.

Never take anything she says at face value.

I don't even have a third one.

I won't lie, I admire what she has done in her life.

She has worked for the rights of children, education and health care.

However, I can't stand this campaign and I have had it.

Now, for Evan McMullin

I know he can't win.

Voting for him goes against my belief that there should not be a Mormon in the White House,

but I feel he has integrity, and really cares about this country.

Okay, now that I have that off my mind.

I went to the pumpkin farm this week with my kids at school.

It was glorious to get out and hear them have fun.

My tree is full of these little red things.

I have no idea what they are.

The squirrels will eat them when winter comes.

Not sure that is actually a good thing.

The world is preparing for the next season.

Wyoming Sunshine

It has been a while since we had an adventure.

We decided to drive to Afton Wyoming for the Star Valley Temple open house.

Afton is only 4 hours from here,

but it is 4 hours of rural Idaho.

We saw a lot of sheep, but these guys were on the go.

The open house included a wagon ride to the temple.

(There were bus rides too)

There was snow on the mountains already.

We went into town.

Do you love the antlers?

We stopped for a little walk on the way home.

 It had been snowing all week.

I feel like we missed the fall colors by a week.

We did find these trees.

They were all carved on.

It was pretty.

I love the way the leaves turn in stages.

On the way home we stopped by Bancroft Idaho.

Wes wanted to stop.

His dad graduated from North Gem High School.

I kept thinking on the way there,

"I bet the school is still there.

We don't like to tear things down in Idaho."

And there it stood.

Established in 1938

They have build on to it and everyone goes there now.

I have a feeling this building was there when he was too.

It was a good trip.

Colors

The other day I went for a walk and

BAM!

Right in front of me.

A nice yellow tree.

I'm not sure how it happened.

But I love the Fall colors.

Last week during the during the General Women's Meeting,

Someone talked about this pillow they made while in Primary.

I dug mine out.

I have thought a lot about it this week.

Yes, I am going to wash it.

And to be honest,

I am going to make a quilt around it.

But I also have thought about the message.

We all make a choice every day about what goes on in our homes.

I can't help but ask myself,

How can I do a better job being the light?

Just a thought.

Changing of the Seasons

It seems that we have had a season change. 

I'm not sure how time goes by so quickly,

but it does.

Every  year I try to plant something to grow on my front steps.

It just doesn't get much sun.

This year I hit the jackpot.

It seems like impatiens do grow in the shade.

If I can only remember this for next year.

I struggle with peoples dependency on cell phones.

I have one.

I keep the volume turned off.

I check for texts at least once a day.

I just don't think that there is anything that important.

I see people drive with them.

I see people work with them.

I see people have them at 

dinner, 

shopping,

and movies.

Really, I just don't get it.

If you really want to talk to me,

Call my land line.

I will get back to you,
I promise.