I did it!

I stayed home this year and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. This may not seem too shocking of a task unless you are familiar with the insanity of my subdivision on Halloween. A newish subdivision, sidewalks, and houses which are fairly close together = ideal situation for trick-or-treating. Each Halloween it seems that 1/2 the valley takes advantage (1/2 is probably an exaggeration). Usually there are students from the college criminal justice department who stand on the corners amidst flares and direct traffic. This year there were no traffic directors, however still plenty of people, cars, and chaos. From about 6:00-7:00 I had a pretty steady stream of kids coming to my door...344 to be exact...until I ran out of candy and had to turn people away. It was actually a much more pleasant experience then I was anticipating and I enjoyed seeing all of the kids in their costumes. I also got tons of compliments on my pumpkin. I'm not sure how much they count coming from kids under the age of 10, but I was glad they liked it.

Last weekend

my mom and I took a trip to Phoenix for Time Out for Women. This is a 2 day conference put on by Desert Book to help lift and rejuvenate women. It was really good, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I especially enjoyed Jenny Oaks Baker who plays the violin, she is superb. Also the talks by Emily Freeman and Kris Belcher were excellent. Time Out for Women is definitely something I would take time out to go to again.

Since we were heading to Phoenix, we decided to get a hike in. We love hiking and try to hit new trails when we can. It was a fun hike, but not without some lessons learned.

• The second week of October in the middle of the day is not a good time to hike in Phoenix, it is still PRETTY WARM.
• When hiking in the desert, watch your step so you don't step on a 2 1/2 foot snake in the middle of the path. (Unfortunately I didn't have my camera out yet to capture the snake. I know Chris is really disappointed).
• Don't step on the small pieces that fall off of the fluffy (they only look fluffy) white cactus. It is quite a chore picking it out of the bottom of your shoe.
• The desert is dry, but it has it's own beauty.

The Bags and Wyoming

Beth and I decided back in the summer that we wanted to make some bags, Birdie Sling's to be more specific. This was an idea we got from our friend Michelle who has made several bags and they look awesome. With Beth coming in September and me taking vacation it was the perfect time for the project. We got the pattern and material and got started. After the first day we had succeeded in cutting out the fabric...this was maybe going to be a bigger task then we first anticipated. After about 4 days of working on the bags (working for several hours each day) we finally finished. Yeah! They turned out very good. We are proud of our accomplishments. The worst part of making the bag was having to pick-out stitches. When I was almost finished I had to unpick the entire thing I had just sewn and I was frustrated, to say the least. Beth, being a nice sister, helped me piece it together again so I wouldn't have to unpick it again. Before this I was thinking of making another bag, but after the last step I thought no way! However, I'm encouraged after finding out that even Michelle (the inspiration for the bags and a seasoned sewer) has to unpick things. I think maybe I'll make another bag or some other creation this fall :)

On a different subject, last weekend I flew up to Wyoming. David, Julie, Bailey and I met in Denver and drove up to Laramie to meet Beth, Chris and their girls for a Cowboys football game. It was a great game; perfect weather, great company, tons of Pokes fans, lots of "Cowboy Joe" and a win. Tons of fun. After the game we walked around campus seeing what was the same and different; it sure brought back great memories. After dinner at an awesome Mexican restaurant in Laramie, we drove to Beth and Chris's house in Rock Springs. It was fun staying with them for the next 1 1/2 days before we had to fly home.

Visit from the Will girls

Last week Beth, Caitlin and Ashlee came for a visit. I took off 3 days from work to spend some time with them since I was in Africa last time they visited. We had a fun time while they were here. Some of the highlights - in writing and in picture:

• Going to parks to play
• Reading books
• Playing games and doing puzzles
• Cooking - with Caitlin helping and wanting to try every ingredient. It's funny that she doesn't like most things for dinner but she does like flour, wheat bran, soda, etc.
• Visiting dad's choir
• Picking apples at the orchard
• Spending time together

It was a great time. I always like it when I can spend time with Beth since we haven't lived by each other for a while. I also love playing with Caitlin and Ashlee. To end with, a story from their visit:

Mom: Caitlin, who is Annie's mother?
Caitlin: I am. She's my Annie
Mom: (After reviewing the Beth is Caitlin's mom) So, who is Annie's mom?
Caitlin: I think she don't have one

Caitlin is pretty funny, as I'm sure all 3 year olds are. She is convinced that I am "her Annie".

Listen...

...that is the glorious sound of monsoon finally making it to Arizona. It was a little late in coming, but finally we had some rain to cool off the HOT weather. Here is a view from my front porch (as you can see, rain gutters are not a norm in AZ, so the corner of my rose garden gets it's more-than-fair-share of run off). The few days of rain showers was so great! I love how the rains dusts everything off so the outdoors becomes vibrant with color.

Good news...

...maybe not for anyone else, but it is good news for me. Back in Africa I took some videos when I was in Lubumbashi but I couldn't get them off my camera (recall the story here). Yesterday I tracked down the software for that camera and, whala, I got the videos. (I realize whala may be spelled completely wrong but I am not the greatest speller and that's how it sounds to me.) This first video is of small kids from a school crossing the street. It was rather disorganized and oh so funny. Also the music playing in the background was authentic Congolese, we listened to that tape about 75 times during the trip.

Did you catch the little girl falling at the end? How sad :( At least she was ok.

The next video is of a parade going through downtown just as we drove up. It was a group from a church all dressed in green and white and singing. I'm not sure what they were saying, but they were very enthusiastic about it. It is kind of fuzzy, but it gives a feeling of the culture there.

A New Car

Here's how is happened. It was my last Friday night in Africa and I was doing my usual nightly activity, checking email and/or blogging. I had a new email from my insurance company with subject, "your recent claim". Funny I thought as I haven't made a claim, maybe it is somehow related to having just paid my renewal so I will skip it for now. Then I get to the next email from my dad with subject, "your Pontiac". The email said something like, "mom was in a fender bender, she is ok, the back of your car is wrecked, call". Hum...I was feeling a bit concerned. I tried to call home, but I either could not get through (it was very difficult to get through at night in Africa because there were 600 lines out that 3000 people were trying to use. Those are just number I made up, but you get the idea) or when I did get through my parents phone was busy. I tried using email to communicate with Beth to find out what was going on, but the wireless that we were "using"' from the house across the street was not working very well. Needless to say, I finally got a hold of my dad and then my mom. My mom was driving my to Phoenix to park it at the airport for me as we had planned and in Mesa someone rear-ended her. My car was towed away because something was rubbing on the tire and it couldn't be driven, but she said the damage didn't look too bad. After returning from Africa, having some rental car struggles, and a few insurance company struggles I finally found out that my car was totaled. I have no pictures of it but, my mom was right, it didn't really look that bad; only the back was smashed. The impact ended up bending the frame, which is why it was a total loss.

After looking around for a while I finally decided to buy a 2009 Honda Accord. I bought it in Mesa one day when it was 115 - in case you are wondering, that is REALLY hot and I do not recommend looking for a car in that kind of heat. It has been a good car so far and hopefully it will be a good car for the next 10 years.