25 October, 2009 - 1 November, 2009

An old Chinese proverb says, "The faintest ink is better than the strongest memory.". (I heard this on a favourite tv show last week.) I think that is a great reason to write my happy things.

#1 I had a very fun week "blog hopping". I was looking for some holiday recipes and ideas, and found a bunch. Other things I learned is that there are a really lot of food blogs. Also, I came across some great blog titles (I wrote them down.). This fun "blog hopping" game reminded me of the "6 degrees to Kevin Bacon" game. One quoted another, who quoted someone else, who knows... So fun. Is 1 hour blog hopping a waste of time if you only get 1 idea? (I got 1 idea that (I think) was worth 6 HOURS of blog hopping.

#2 I really enjoyed the recipes I tried this week. Eight new ones in all. I made lemon poppy seed AFB with a lemon glaze. It was great, but better than that, I also used 2 cups of starter and made pancakes. We really liked the flavour and texture. A good reason to not cut my starters in half.
I tried a new pumpkin seed recipe (a keeper), and pumpkin pie milkshakes (date night with Doug-very good). On Halloween I made pumpkin cornbread (will make when it is not even Halloween), created a pumpkin chili (I counted the chili as my new crock pot recipe.) and pumpkin cheesecake brownies (will make the chili, a lot, will make the brownies in the fall). A fun experimenting week. Thanks family for testing and reviewing. Everyone came for Halloween dinner.

#3 YEA! Christmas music. I LOVE CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!! (I actually started during my morning carpool last week. (I could not help it. There was a Bing tape in the car.) It can now be officially listened to. And I have been. (Even with all the Halloween decor still up.) Our family radio contest started on Sunday.

#4 After more than a year, we can (very barely) fit a car in the garage. That makes me very very happy. (I park there on Sundays and Tuesdays (I have carpool on Monday and Wednesday) and Doug gets all the other nights-so he will not have to scrape in the morning.... Which leads me to #5. (and also #6.)

#5 I am so happy (read "thankful") for Doug-and his job. He gets up every morning and goes to work with never a complaint. When I tell him I'm sorry he can't sleep in or stay home, he says he does'nt mind. Convincingly! I am so thankful that he has let me be a stay at home mom, and grandma. I am thankful for the security (hopefully) of his job. Especially now as there is so much financial turmoil.

#6 All of my children got together to get a new garage door opener for us for Christmas this year. THANK-YOU. They said we could have it now. I am really happy we have our sweet David. He spent many hours (over several days and evenings) installing it. (It does not work, yet, but that is another matter.) Thank-you so much, David for all the projects and repairs you do for our "duct tape" family. We really appreciate you and love you.

#7 I am happy that I am a grandma. Logan went trick or treating at grandpa's office on Friday. They are such good friends. Logan performed great. Everyone could tell he loved grandpa. And boy does Logan love Layne. He wants to go play at Layne's house (in the same apartment building), call Layne, copy Layne, climb on Layne... And boy is Layne great with Logan. Such a kind, sweet cousin. I love them both.



#8 I am so happy Mark got a good job. He was hired on Friday and starts training to be teller on Wednesday. YEA!!! WHOO HOO!!! (I will miss him being in and out between school and jobs.)



#9 TRADITION! I love all our family traditions. We have great Halloween traditions at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We start with dinner, a big variety of soups. (I took Emily's Amazing (food storage) Taco Soup and "gwoss guacamole dip". (A healthy dip based an a Martha Stewart idea.) The big, anticipated event is the spook alley in the basement. This year Grandpa (the Grandmaster) out did himself. (This is their first Halloween at home since they returned from living in Washington D.C.) This year there were 3 (THREE) spook alleys. Each one was scarier than the last. (Since I startle easy I only went to #1-WITH lights on, and with the junior cast. It was great.) #1 was in the basement. #2 was outside in the back yard. #3 was across the street from Grandpa's house in Homer's old, now empty, under renovation, big, old house. In the dark. It sounded scary from across the street. Grandpa (and Grandma) really did a great job this year. THANK-YOU.



#10 Fast Sunday really makes me happy. (Except for the headache.) I am so thankful for a special day that I can ask Heavenly Father for those things that are closest to my heart.

As always, not in order. And, this is a really condensed list. I wanted to do atleast 14 Things That Made Me Happy This Week! Michelle