One Amazing Chica

Meet my friend Laura. She and I met through serving in the Relief Society presidency together, and I absolutely adore her. She is one of the sweetest, most sensitive souls in the world, one serious crackup -- I pee my pants laughing whenever she's around -- and probably one of the coolest people I know. She and her husband own a longboard company, LongBoard Larry (Larry's her husband), she rides her very own motorcycle, and she's an incredible mom, cook, photographer, family history buff, the world's biggest Twilight fan, not to mention blogger extraordinaire (her blog is amazing)! And to top it all off, she is donating her kidney to her uncle today, Halloween day. In this picture she's wearing a T-shirt that our R.S. president found for her in honor of her big day (thanks for letting me steal the photo from your blog, Laura). Laura, you are "seriously so amazing," girl. Lots of prayers your way and a speedy recovery.

Beautiful Fall Tradition

One of our favorite family outings last year was an impromptu picnic dinner we had at Riverfront Park here in Salem. We grabbed some KFC, bundled up Eliot, and found a cozy bench overlooking the river, where we enjoyed the golden autumn sunshine melting over the still water and glistening in the colored trees. We enjoyed it so much that we wanted to experience it all over again. So tonight I picked up some KFC on the way to pick up Grant from school, bundled up Eliot, found a cozy bench along the river and soaked in a fall sunset over the river. These pictures of course don't do our wonderful evening justice, but maybe they'll give you a taste of why we like this little newly formed tradition so much.

Eliot and his daddy. The river was so perfectly still that it had the most beautiful reflection of the sky in it. Incredible!

Eliot and his mommy ... a little blurry, but hopefully you can see the cute expression on his face. He's gotten to be a bit of a ham, most especially when the camera comes out. Or around grandparent figures. We think it's all natural instinct.

Silly Eliot, cozy in his new hat, scarf, and mittens.

Sweet Eliot. This year he was able to enjoy our evening a little more than a year ago when he was still a newborn. This year he got a taste of the picnic dinner and didn't sleep through the walk around the park.

Sunset over the river, just as we were leaving. You can't tell very well, but the light over the horizon was a brilliant, deep red. Beautiful!

A blurry but kind of cool shot of "beautiful downtown Salem." A hopping metropolis, as you can tell. But we love it. One of the things I realized tonight was how much I love living in this beautiful place and that it makes me sad that this is such a fleeting time of our life.

Kinda Cute

Every once in a while, I DO actually make time for my creative outlets. My most recent "burst" of creativity was brought on by the desire to get the ladies I visit teach a "treat" for Halloween, but since two of the three are on restricted diets, I had to think outside of the box. And voila -- these cute little pumpkin planters with pansies inside. I got the idea from a magazine, which featured pumpkins with beautiful fall mums inside, but that was a little spendy for our law student budget. I was pretty darn proud of how cute and simple these turned out, though!

P.P.S.

A Hersheys tombstone is just a little Hersheys chocolate bar with a tombstone design printed on it. Grant and I were very excited about that one because his family has a favorite Halloween treat -- graveyard brownies, where you make frosted brownies and decorate with chocolate bar "tombstones" (I used to always use backwards kit kats and try to frost RIP on them, which was always an ordeal) and little bits of "dirt" (crumbled Oreos) and "grass" (coconut dyed with green food coloring) in front of the tombstones. They're a very cute halloween treat, and now with the Hersheys tombstones they'll be even easier to make and lots cuter!

FYI

I've had a lot of requests as to where I found the York "batty"/Reeses pumpkins/Hersheys tombstones Halloween mix, so here's the source of my stash -- Wal-Mart. Yep, just Wal-Mart. It was kind of on a bottom shelf, so look closely. Just don't take 'em all, you other Salem shoppers! We've been eating too many of them and I need another bag so I actually have something to give the trick or treaters!

New-found favorite!

I gave in and bought some Halloween candy this weekend, even though I know full well that much of it will not last until Halloween as planned. I found the greatest new little mixed bag of candy -- it's a Reeses assortment bag with Hersheys Tombstones, Reeses peanut butter pumpkins, and . . . York peppermint "batties"!! I am a sucker for York anything (and dearly miss the York bites, which I consumed entirely too much of on my mission), and these are adorable and fun. They're the scrumptious York peppermint patties, but cut into bat shapes. How cute (and tasty) is that?!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Sis

Sherri and me last December with our "twin" sons, Michael and Eliot (born within an hour of each other last June). We need a more recent picture together!

Today is the birthday of my oldest sister, Sherri. I wish there were words to adequately describe Sherri and the incredible person that she is. She is one of the purest, most noble examples of womanhood and motherhood in my life. She is one of my closest friends. Sherri understands my heart. Sherri is generous, kind, patient, quietly righteous. She is steadfast, courageous, happy, understanding. She is beyond intelligent and uses her gifts to bless first and foremost in her home but also with all of her heart, might, mind and strength in her church service. She loves the Lord with her whole heart and has always, always puts Him first. My memories of Sherri are of her praying, of her serving, of her loving to be home, of her setting and accomplishing goals. She has always loved and been a friend to Grant, even since our immature high school days. Her example of how welcoming she has been of each new member of our family is one that I seek to emulate. She is able to reach out to people and help them feel comfortable in a way that many people are not able to do. I could go on and on about Sherri. Her goodness is endless. Our memories together are cherished. From high heels punched through bedroom doors to bribing with ribbon candy, from Lake Powell beaver and "Sanda Monica" adventures to hunting down Strawberry Shortcake videos for a trip down memory lane the night before I left for my mission, from sharing pumpkin cheesecake at the Olive Garden to sharing a sweet pregnancy and birth of our sons together, our life has been full of rich, loving, sweet and happy memories.
Happy Birthday, Sherri. Love you, Sis.

Sunshine in My Soul

I have been in need of sunshine.

Not just physical sunshine, though the rain has officially begun in Oregon, but spiritual sunshine, mental sunshine, emotional sunshine. I have been bogged down for too long with some inner struggles that have been clouding my soul. Though I've wanted and fought for that light back in my life over the past year, and I've no doubt had my share of sunny days interspersed with the clouds, this past weekend brought a needed, sustained break in those clouds.

Part of that sunshine came through a day off with my little family. Grant had a couple days off this weekend from school, and was good enough to devote an entire one of them to just us. So as a little family, we ventured up to Portland and had a sweet and memorable family day. Thanks to a dear friend's generous offer to watch Eliot for us in the morning, Grant and I were able to attend a temple session at the Portland Temple, the first time we've been back to that particular temple since I was expecting Eliot. What a peaceful, calm experience. An even greater blessing was to find out that Eliot napped the entire time we were at the temple, which, as any young mom knows, is a great blessing in and of itself. In the afternoon, we went and explored Portland, which we haven't done yet since we've been in Oregon. We browsed the famous Powell's bookstore, which takes up an entire city block in downtown Portland, and got even more excited about a "Container Store" look-alike, Storables, which had some amazing organization ideas (I know, simple pleasures!). We then managed to get ourselves lost, which is inevitable in Portland, but took advantage of the detour and picked up one of our family favorites, some DQ blizzards, and then ended up at the Portland Children's Museum (look for pictures on Eliot's blog, coming soon . . . which may sound like an empty promise coming from the mommy who has yet to post her almost 16-month-old's first birthday pictures). The Children's Museum was incredible, but a bit overwhelming that particular evening since it happened to be free admission night. We got enough of a taste to whet our pallets and tempt us to go back. It was a full, but wonderful day. I learned the important lesson that families need those "time outs" every so often to just be together, enjoy one another's company, try something new. Despite the day being rainy, rainy, rainy, it brought sunshine to my soul to have that family time.

More sunshine came to me this weekend as I was able to listen to the prophet and leaders of our church in the general conference that was held and broadcast on Saturday and Sunday. Talk after talk seemed "just for me" and spoke peace and comfort to my heart and to the world, for that matter, at a time of great unrest and uncertainty. I gobbled up that spiritual feast and couldn't seem to take notes fast enough. Powerful, inspired, uplifting messages, combined with a rainy, cozy weekend inside with my boys made for the restful weekend that our little family and my soul have desperately needed. Sunday was the best of all -- I got up early and made homemade cinnamon rolls, Grant kept himself occupied putting together a puzzle, and Eliot was surprisingly content to play with his toys and do laps around the kitchen and family room. A little piece of heaven in our home. No wonder Monday morning Grant and I woke up feeling the most rested we have in a long time.

There is sunshine in my soul today . . .
And hope and praise and love
For blessings which He gives me now
For joys laid up above.
Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine,
When the peaceful happy moments roll,
When Jesus shows His smiling face,
There is sunshine in the soul.