Remodeling, Thanksgiving

Well, for an update on our remodeling project, we are at the point of only one room to paint and picking carpet. We have someone coming tonight to give us an estimate on carpeting and another one coming tomorrow night. Then we have to decide. I told Frank on Saturday that it would come down to the cost because I haven't found one carpet that I like more than any other. There are definitely some that I like a LOT less than others.

Here are a couple of pictures of the family room with paint on the walls. It is the same color as our bedroom.





We even got the stairwell and surrounding area painted this weekend. (I will post it when there is carpet on the those stairs.)

Then I actually hung the shower curtain, put the rugs down and used the shower one morning. If it could only be completely finished.

Oh well, enough moaning about that. Time to move on to other things.

THANKSGIVING!!! One of my favorite holidays. I really enjoy that it is usually steeped in tradition. We will be going to Frank's sister Lynnette's home for dinner and the traditional gingerbread house party after. Then all of the kids and grandkids will get together for our family lunch... on Saturday afternoon. We have lunch, sing Happy Birthday to all of the family members who have birthdays this time of year, have cake and ice cream and decorate their gingerbread houses.

I have tried for a couple of years to get out of the gingerbread house habit because it is a lot of WORK. Lynnette has been more than generous and offered to bake them for me. Two years ago we just decorated cookies. (That got way out of control, fast!!) Last year I tried using graham crackers to imitate gingerbread. Those are not strong enough. When Hannah asked me last year, "Grandma, can we do real gingerbread houses next year?" I knew that I was committed. It is really fun to see how creative the kids are. And even though it might not be cool if their friends saw them, I hope that as they get older they will continue to participate in that tradition.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, what is your favorite side dish for the big day. Mine has to be the Raspberry pretzel salad. It is the perfect combination of tart and sweet, with a bit of salt in the crust. I get to bring it to the dinner this year. If you have a fabulous/favorite side dish feel free to leave me a comment on what it is.

Have a safe and tradition filled Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving and history

(Sorry Lisa, I lifted a great picture from your blog.)

Yesterday was election day. While I voted 2 weeks ago, I was glad to see it finally come to an end. This has been a LONG, drawn out process. I am glad that the nasty ads will be gone. And while some of my choices may not have won, I am very thankful for the opportunity to cast my vote and to witness history, the history of electing public officials. We should be very grateful that we have the opportunity to go through this process. Another thing that I hope happens now that the elections are over is that the "chicken little"( the sky is falling...) type emails will quit finding their way into my mailbox. Especially those emails that are not entirely correct. Most days I don't even open them, but ocassionally I will weaken and click on one of them and then I have to delete it. I know that most people think that they are keeping others informed, but perhaps we should check the validity of them before we just click forward.

Okay, I am now off my soap box. I hope that were some successes in your ballot, and if you didn't vote, I don't want to hear it.

More halloween

Mom convinced me (with a simple invitation) to go to Moroni with her on Friday to see the girls Halloween parade. I think that Jess needs to move one county closer or we do. That is a long trip to do round trip, oh sorry I digress.

We loaded up on Friday morning and made the drive down, had some lunch and rushed to parade route to get a spot. Two whole blocks of Main Street. The kids come down to Main Street and go two blocks down, turn around and come back and then go back to the school. We had Addi and Paul in tow as Jess had to go finish Kassidy's costume. It was great weather, we saw Nana and she came to stand with us for the parade. It was fun to see all of the costumes and even some of those not in the parade dressed up. Here are the ones I could snap of the girls as they marched by.

There's Emma the witch.

There's Kass as a bat.

After the parade, the kids got to come home. They were both a bit upset that we weren't staying the night. We hung out for a bit and then we headed home. Here are a couple more pictures. Some are of Addi in her ghost ensemble. She was playing a Tyrannous Rex in one of the pictures.

T-REX?

Halloween and birthdays

Wow, it is amazing how time flies... A week ago Sunday, October 26 we got to go to the annual bloody brains and eyeballs dinner in celebration of Harley's birthday!! It was a fun event and for once I didn't freeze in the basement of the garage. (We have had incredibly beautiful weather.)

Here is Harley amid the stringers and stuff that Sunday. Besides our wonderful serving of bloody brains and eyeballs we got to have kitty litter cake and homemade ice cream. The ice cream was great, but I am not too sure about that cake. Here it is before anyone cut into it.

Then for Harley's birthday shopping trip we picked her up on Saturday. We went and found the Clearfield train station and took Front Runner into Salt Lake, then Traxx to the Gateway shopping center. We were all told that she could not get another Build-A-Bear. (I think she said that she has 13 of them, as well as all of the rest of her animals.) So we went to lunch at Applebee's and then went to Barnes and Noble. I don't think that Grandpa knew you could spend so much at a bookstore. Oh well. Here is Harley with her birthday present as we wait for the train.

For this year we have a shopping trip with Rachel in November and a shopping trip with Jacob in December, then we get to start all over again. Too much fun.