Emily's Birthday, The Christmas Drawing, A Dead Phone and Halloween Fun Times!

So the big news this week is that my phone gave up the ghost ... right in Sunday School with Spencer sitting beside me for the last time, as he will now be teaching Primary with Brittney!  Lucky for me I could look off his phone for the lesson.  Thanks Buddy!

So you get many fewer pictures this week than usual given the dead phone situation, and the post will likely be shorter too.  Lucky you!  

On Monday, I finally got the house back to rights, after my tea party ... the dining room table sat by the window from Tuesday through Monday, YIKES!  I also spent hours blogging, as you may recall, I lost a completed blog ... I love technology.  Dad and I finished up the day watching Downton Abbey!

Tuesday was Emily's birthday and I got to talk to her on the phone for almost an hour, which was lovely.  I spent most of the day working on organizing my craft room ... I'm getting so close.  In fact I was actually able to do a couple of projects on my craft room table this week, and that is progress.  The Temple is closed for a couple of weeks, so Dad and I hung out after dinner and he chose 'Austenland' for our movie of the evening! No wonder I love that guy!!

... and Thanks to Emily and Dad, Wednesday was one of the most fun days in recent history.  thanks Emily for moving to Texas and inviting us to come down, and Dad for being unable to go down, due to work.  I'd arranged some days off to go, so when the guy I'd traded to get off last Wednesday had already had me work his day, I left it as is, so I was free Wednesday.  

That morning my friend Joanne texted to see if I wanted to go to Kim's open house in SLC.  I'd gone to Kim's Tea Party a couple of weeks ago, and loved it, but thought it would be fun to go with this group of blogger friends ... there is so much to see at Kim's afterall.

Above is a picture of Kim's house.  I took a ton of pics, but so did my friends, and I got them to send me enough to do a Pollyanna blogpost about the day.  That left me with a few to share with you all.

After Kim's house we went to her daughter's store, Retro Betty's.  I loved this antique 1940's award winning Halloween costume ... the collar is made of crepe paper ... 

Afterwards we went to Zupa's in Sugar House ... the same one that I last had a meal with Emily, before taking her to the airport.

On Thursday I did the family Christmas gift drawing, which is included at the bottom of this post.  Then it was off to work.  After work I sort of shopped my way north, picking up stuff for upcoming Festival of Trees, then hitting the DI in AF before joining Dad at Trevor and Nell's to babysit, as they'd gone to a concert that night.  I had the cutest picture of Dad with Penny, but its lost forever.  Though its not hard to imagine a cute picture of Dad with Penny!

On Friday I did more craft room organizing and put together these craft kits to sell at the 3 Dotters' show I'm doing this weekend.   I did some repairs on items for the show as well, before making dinner for Dad and Cheryl.  After dinner the Pecks stopped by to see the attic and see if they are interested in taking it on.  I showed you Trudy and me at the house they just finished flipping last week.  They are looking for the house for their next flip, at the moment, and think they can sandwich us in!  Yeah, he does awesome work, and we are so excited!! He'll be doing the insulation and sheet rocking that Dad can't do with his shoulder injury and surgery coming up.

And thanks to Emily we started watching the Big Bang theory that night.  She pre-ordered  last season for us for my Birthday and it came this week!  Happy me, we are having so much fun!

 On Saturday, I got going early making up a craft to take to Eva and Eleanor's Halloween Party that they had invited me to.  I stopped by Becca's house with Titan's birthday gift, that included these Menion PJs, and found him watching Despicable Me, which he'd gotten for his birthday!  Score!!

Then Eva and Eleanor's party was super fun, and it was the perfect way to spend Halloween afternoon.  We had fun Halloween snacks on cute Halloween snack trays and drank drinks of out tiny plastic cups.  Then we worked on the craft I'd brought, and it was so fun to craft with my kindred crafting spirits!  Nell is sending me some pictures she took, so I will add those when I get them.

 Meanwhile, back in the attic, Dad was working hauling out years of storage.  He came up with about 15 years worth of financial records, many of which he could now dispose of ... I loved the smoky autumn smell he created burning them ....

 Of course I lost the picture I took of Spencer helping him move the bath tub into the bathroom, but even without proof we appreciate all Spencer did to help out with this project.  As you can see by the time I got home, it was pretty well cleared out, but I did get to work on it for about an hour with Dad.

Its amazing to realize that Dad hauled the heavy old cistern out onto the balcony by himself.  Whoa, he has skills!

Today was pretty typical ... I went to our Sacrament and Testimony meeting and then to Sunday School.   In Sunday School we talked about a scripture in Ephesians that really struck me. 

Ephesians 6:1-3

 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

 2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)

 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

Its pretty basic, but I realized why this scripture is so true.  If you honor and obey your parents, who want the best for you, like your Heavenly Father does, then you do things that are good for you.  Like eating healthy, getting exercise, you will avoid harmful substances.  Obeying your parents will mean that you stay away from harmful relationships in your youth, you will be peaceable, as in you will not fight with others.  You will not steal, or commit adultry, or break any of the other commandments, that lead to angry relationships, or getting in trouble with authorities.  All of that leads to a long life, because you are more likely to be healthy, and stay away from dangerous behaviors.  Thus it is a commandment with a promise!

Anyway, next I was off to Dad's second sacrament and testimony meeting.  I bore my testimony about how the saints strengthen each other.  I love that part about my membership in the church.

After church I did some reading, I finally started the second book of the Joseph Smith Papers, see what a good thing having a dead phone can be?  So that was our week!!

And here is our exchange list for 2015.  Love you all!

Brittany - BriahnnaMike - Spencer

Ashley - Brittany

Andy- Becca

Darby- Brittney

Trevor - Davin

Nell - Ben

Ben - Ashley

Hanna - Sam

Davin - Mike

Briahnna - Nell

Emily - Andy

Sam -Hanna

Becca - Trevor

Brady -Darby (they have the same letters in their names just rearranged, anyone ever notice that before?)

Spencer- Emily

Brittney- Brady

Kai - Ian

Alex - Zach

Charly- Abigail

Kim - J. Scott

Ian -Titan

Zach- Elias

J. Scott - Adilyn

Eva - Alex

Elinor -Madison

Penny -Beki

Elias - Kai

Adilyn -Penny

Kenna -William

Beki -Reagan

William -Eva

Abigail - Kim

Titan - Charly

Reagan- -Kenna

Madison - Elinor