The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

Well hello once again.  I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  It already feels like it has been ages since Thursday.  So, I must say that now that the leaves are almost gone from our tree in the front yard it really is time for some snow.  I will be spending Christmas in sunny Phoenix, AZ and I won’t have the opportunity for a white Christmas.  As such I would really like to get a good dose of white “Christmas” in before we go to AZ.  Besides the tree without leaves is telling me that it is time for the snow to come blowing in.  So where is it? 

Anyway, so Monday this week I went and helped my grandma to wrap a few gifts as well as her frozen fruit salad.  It is always fun to visit with her and while making the salad we used practically every mixing bowl and colander in the house.  Not to mention having jello and whipping cream on the counters.  I had a lot of fun though and Aiden enjoyed crawling around and getting into the garbage.  😉

Tuesday was a regular ol’ day with nothing significant to mention.  Wednesday was a busy day.  In the afternoon my dad and I went shopping.  We got Brandon’s Christmas gift, Aiden’s car seat (which was my dad’s Christmas gift to him), stopped at the bank, went to Joann Fabrics so that I could get ribbon for a project that I am helping my grandma with, and then we ate at Salt Lake Pizza and Pasta.  I got a “create your own 9″ pizza” and holy toledo it was GOOD!  Definitely one of the best pizzas I have ever had.  Yum!  In the morning I made Jello salad for Thanksgiving and then in the evening after all of our shopping I made the apple pie that I was assigned to bring.  It didn’t get pulled out of the oven until 10:30.  Oi!  Needless to say I didn’t make the glaze until Thursday.

Which brings us to Thanksgiving!  We mostly took it easy all morning.  I did make glaze for the pie and then I held Aiden while he napped because he would NOT take a nap and I didn’t want him to be ornery at Thanksgiving or tired and sleeping.  I knew he would enjoy the festivities and so I wanted him to nap.  Around 12:45 we headed over to my aunt’s ward house where we gathered with most of the extended family.  The was a large feast of food.  Complete with green bean casserole, creamed corn, turducken, turkey, yams, rolls, mashed potatoes, ham, banana cream pie, pumkin pie, apple pie, and strawberry rhubarb pie.  Oh let’s not forget my favorite part the STUFFING!  OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH so good!  In the evening we watched Hancock.  The story line was good but the language was not.  😐 

Friday morning we went and took Aiden to have his 9 month pictures taken at Target.  While we waited we went back to look at the toys and it was still a bit crazy (it was 10:00 in the morning).  Later on Aiden and I took Brandon to work.  On the way home we stopped by the home of an old University Village buddy and picked up some hand me downs for Aiden.  We visited a little bit and it was fun to see them.  We also stopped at walmart so that I could get a few thingsfor Christmas.  After Aiden had a nap and food we went back out and stopped at Seagull Book and Tape (I LOVE that store) as well as Joann Fabrics.  By that time we needed to pick Brandon back up.  It was a busy day but I got a lot done.

Yesterday I finally went to see Twilight.  Three of my friends went with me, two of whom had already seen the movie, one who had not.  I literally smiled the WHOLE movie.  I did realize that I read the books way too fast because I had trouble keeping the supporting characters straight.  I just thought that the movie was well done and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed the books.  Before the movie I stopped by another friends who also had hand me downs for me to borrow.  Now Aiden will be a well dressed kid!  I will forever appreciate those who helped me out.

Tonight we will be having a tasty dinner of taco salad with homemade creamy tomatillo sauce and then decorating the christmas tree!  YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!  Have a great week, thanks for reading…

So, since I have been up since six with my mind a whirring (I don’t usually get up until 7:30 and today I was going to try and sleep in) I thought that I would write about the things I am most grateful for.  This is not a “top five” or “top ten” and they are in no particular order but here goes…

1. A place to live/a roof over the heads of my husband, son, and I. (Thanks dad!)

2. Food to eat.  Seriously, I like food alot (and so does my son).

3. Being a mom.  I waited 17 long months for a successful pregnancy and let me tell you, it makes the rest that much more sweet.

4. My eccentric, silly, loving mom.  She adds a certain richness and spice to life that is unique only to her.

5. My generous, intelligent, loving father.  I know that if my family is ever in a bind he is there for us.  He is also good for some stimulating conversation as well, this is nice after you have been talking to a babbling baby all day.  😉

6. Family in general, I have been blessed with having a very close extended family who all live within 45 mins. of me and with whom I have shared many memories with at various family functions.

7. I better mention my sister.  :p  She is a strong, beautiful woman (yes woman, she is all grown up, married, and living in Florida with her hubby, sometimes I forget she isn’t little anymore) who knows her mind and isn’t afraid to speak it.  She is also brave and willing to take risks that I talk myself out of.  You rock little sis!

8.  I am grateful for all the people whose paths I’ve crossed in my life who have taught me a little bit more about myself and the world around me.  This includes friends, teachers, church leaders, colleagues at work, and the random people I have passed on the U of U campus, at the grocery store, or walking down the street just to name a few.

9. I am grateful for my education.  I am so lucky to have been able to go through all of the public education system K-12 and then go on to earn a college degree.   Only a precious few (what like 25%) of high school graduates even get that priviledge.

10. I am grateful for my religion.  I don’t know how many times I can say this.  The church of Jesus Christ brings an added measure of peace, love, joy, security, and strength into my life.  It also binds me to me family eternally.  Which means that neither on earth nor in Heaven will I be apart from them.  Considering how much I love my family this is a truly marvelous blessing.

11. My health.  Sure I have asthma, allergies, and a slightly curved spine, but those have been the extent of my ailments despite my lack of excercise until now and indulging in too many tasty sweets.  I am grateful to have been so lucky.

12. My talents.  Sure my whole life I have thought that I didn’t excel at any one thing (I still don’t think I do), but I have been able to use my talents to help others or to bring joy to their lives and that is pretty cool.  My talents also provide me with joy, and a sense of accomplishment.

Well, I am sure that the more I “count my blessings” the more I could think of to write but in order to not ramble on and on I will stop here.  I have a friend blogging 5 things she is grateful for every day.  Maybe I will do that…I will think on it.  Have a happy Thanksgiving and don’t stuff yourselves to the point of belly ache!!  There are always leftovers for later…  🙂

Why hello again!  Can you believe that next week is Thanksgiving?  I wanted to make mention once again about Christmas music before Thanksgiving.  This year I came to learn something about myself.  To me Christmas is Love, Peace, Gratitude, and Family.  So despite the fact that at least half of the Christmas songs on the radio could be construed as “commercialistic” these songs have come to bring to me those 4 things which embody the “spirit” of the season.  To me feeling the spirit of the season (being Nov. 1-Jan. 2) does not take away from Thanksgiving but adds to it.  If we are feeling love and gratitude throughout the month of November it enhances the actual day of Thanksgiving.  Then as after we enjoy our family and share what we are greatful for we can look forward to the upcoming holiday of Christmas and the wonder and blessing of Christs birth.  I now understand why people so look forward to the Christmas music.  It is because of the spiritual side of Christmas, not the commercialistic side.  This too is the reason they want it to last all year long.  It is not because they are trying to skip over Thanksgiving but because they are all wrapped together in one loving, grateful package of time spent with family and loved ones…

So, Monday and Tuesday we uneventful as usual.  (I don’t know that they are truly uneventful, I think I just don’t ever remember what we do because they are at the beginning of the week.  For those truly curious I do know that mondays are the night we watch Samantha Who and tuesdays are Eli Stone nights.)  Anyway…

Wednesday was a crazy day for Brandon.  I had an appointment for 3:15 to pick up some free clothes for Aiden from the Pregnancy Resource Center and I needed the car.  So…he planned to ride the bus to school and work, looked up the routes and looked like he would make it with time to spare.  He got to school successfully but on the way to work Trax came late and so he ended up missing his connecting bus.  Instead of being 20 mins. early he ended up being 45 mins. late.  He was a bit frustrated.  Aiden also had a really difficult time going down for his mid-morning nap and that had me a bit stressed.  After picking up clothes I went to visit grandma Carolyn which was fun as always.  I have such great extended family!  Wednesday I also let Aiden feed his oatmeal to himself (you can watch the movie here when it is uploaded) it was toooooo funny.  I giggled and thought he was so clever. 

Thursday I let Aiden play the piano and he got upset when I put him back down on the ground.  He wanted to play some more. 

Friday evening Brandon and I watched “Water Horse” while Aiden crawled around getting into things.

Yesterday was fun, my mom baby sat Aiden while Brandon and I went to Desert Star.  We saw “Miracle on 42nd Street.”   An old peer of mine from college was in it.  She had taken a bit of a leave of absence and it was fun to see her on stage again.  After Desert Star we picked up Aiden and went to visit my aunt briefly.  We ended our outing by stopping at Memory Grove to take pictures for our family Christmas card.  We got a bunch of blurry ones but managed to have at least one decent one.  We made homemade burgers for dinner and then went to Winegars so that I could pick up WIC stuff and Brandon could take pictures of meat for a class project.  When we got back I watched “The Prince and Me, Royal Honeymoon.”

This morning we ate muffins, sausage, potato cakes, and scrambled eggs (Aiden did too!).  It was a pretty yummy breakfast.  We really like the Jiffy Muffin Mix from the store.  This evening my mom is coming over for dinner and then we are going to watch the 24 two hour special “Redemption” tonight on fox 13 at 7:00.  We hope that everyone has a good week and oh yea, GO UTES!  Final BYU vs. UTAH score was 48-24 Utes!  I sure do love my alma mater.  😉  Happy Thanksgiving everyone, thanks for reading…

Where do I begin?  This week has been fairly good.  I have been very diligent about excercising on Wii fit every day (I plan to take Sundays off), I have taken Aiden out for a 15-30 min. walk in the mornings since Thurs. and feel that I am learning how to better carry my body by improving my posture and strengthening my muscles.  I have also been a bit confused by the whole propostion 8 thing and all of the media attention that it is getting (hence my previous article), I have been researching it and trying to understand why the leaders of the church got so involved, when in the previous Traditional marriage vote they made a statement and let individual members make a decision.  In talking with my husband I came to this realization, in 2004 there was the additional addendum to the Traditional Marriage proposition.  This addendum clearly states that… “No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect.”  This most recent election was simply a vote to define marriage as being between a man and a woman.  It was the possible implications of this definition ie. less rights for those choosing to commit to a union of same gender that have been the problem for me.  In this years statement from the church they mention, “The Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility toward gays and lesbians. Even more, the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches.”  In other words, those choosing to enter into a same gender union ought to have rights equivilant to those who are in a traditional (man and woman) marriage.  The church was simply standing up for marriage as God intended it to be, not agreeing with changing the rights of those who choose a different union.  Both Brandon and I agree that those choosing to enter into what should henceforth be defined as a “domestic union” (marriage being reserved specifically for a man and a woman who marry) ought to have equivilant rights to those of us who have chosen to marry someone of the opposite gender.  The persecution that was brought upon the church because of this proposition has been hard for me to swallow but when I realized that this proposition was slightly different then the other and that it was not President Monson but God who directed the leaders of the church to do what they did, then I am able to understand that the things that happened were foreordained to happen.  Persecution is only going to get worse, black and white will only become more and more gray, good will be called bad and bad will be called good (even more so then what is already happening).  Our trials will become more frequent.  These are the things that we have been brought forth at this time to endure and if we keep our eye towards our loving Father in Heaven, he will give us (and our children) the strength to overcome them.  Phew!

Anyway, so the happenings of the week.  Monday I spent a lot of the afternoon working on what will be the 3rd amendment to our 2007 taxes.  You see, Brandon has done some freelance design work for a company in Idaho.  As a result he didn’t have a W-2 for the 2007 tax year and although I reported the income with our other W-2 income I was unaware that I needed to send a schedule C with our tax form as a “W-2” for that freelance income.  Well, of course the U of U decided to do one of their random audits this year on Brandon and I ended up having to fill out a schedule C and an amended tax return along with the $105.00 we owed to the IRS.  Last week we received a notice saying that we owed another $250?!?!?!?  I was shocked but planning to pay it.  Luckily I found a paper that showed that the IRS had amended our tax return a 2nd time because of the schedule C and I found that they thought we had made and additional $1400 then what we originally reported instead of using the schedule C as an explanation for the wages that we had already reported but had no W-2 for.  I also found that they thought they had overpaid us $600 more then the actual total because of some telephone excise tax thing from 2006.  We did not receive payment for any telephone excise tax!  Good news is that they now owe us $9.50 because when I sent them a check for the first amendment I overpaid a little bit.  I just hope that I don’t confuse things more and that they get the same numbers I did (some of which I got from the IRS over the phone).  Anyway…Do you taxes correctly the first time and if you don’t know something ASK!!!!!

Tuesday was Veteren’s day and as such Brandon did not have to go to work (he did have school though, lame!).  It was good to have him at home but he had already planned to do some “other” work during the time that he would have normally been at work.  He has a book that he wants to write and so he was going to work on that as well as his portfolio website for class.  He also had a bit of homework I believe.  Anyway, so I planned to use the car since it would be home for me to use and went to run some Christmas errands.  It was fun even though it took a bit longer then usual due to having to get Aiden in and out of the car, shopping carts, and baby carrier.  I even went to pick up some books at the library and it was closed due to the holiday.  Doh. 

Thursday was a momentous day!  Aiden started to “cruise” meaning that his cheerio’s were on the other end of the coffee table and he side stepped over to them while holding on to the table.  You can see the video on the family adventure blog within a few days.  I also won a gift for Aiden on e-bay!  It is some fisher price peek-a-blocks and roll-a-rounds, I sure hope Santa did buy him the same thing.  I believe this is also the day he kind of face planted trying to crawl over my knees.  Lucky he was so low to the ground or he would have bruised.  I really believe Heavenly Father is watching out for him because while he does get a few red spots from the normal bumps and bruises of a baby learning to walk, they fade by the end of the day or the next morning. 

Friday I went and got a trim and when I got home we went on a walk as a family.  During the day I worked on another Christmas gift and also tried to sign up for a yahoo group both things had me frustrated by the end.  In the evening we watched Super Nanny and Super Manny.  I just hope that we can remember all of the awesome tricks and techniques used in those shows when we run into things in the future. 

Yesterday Brandon, Aiden, my dad, and I all went to Ikea so that my dad could go for his first time.  We were able to find a couple of things we had been needing, including a t.v. stand for the living room!  Hooray!  It was fun to go there again, Aiden was enjoying having a lot to see and he did not nap from when he woke up at 8:00 until 3:00 that afternoon.  He started to get a bit crazy and I am going to do my best to avoid that again.  Oi!  While we were there we also got to eat the yummy meatballs and we picked up some cinnamon rolls to go which we enjoyed for breakfast this morning along with some scrambled eggs.  That night (Sat.) Brandon and I watched Journey to the Center of the Earth which we really enjoyed.  We also intend to watch Water Horse sometime soon.  Oh then when I was feeding Aiden his bedtime bottle he threw up twice and I was scared because I had no idea what was going on.  I called Brandon up to give Aiden a blessing and noticed Aiden was chewing on something.  It turns out he had a fiber of the carpet in his mouth (it was the thickness of yarn and two of them stuck together about 1/2″ long) and was gagging on it because it was tickling his throat as he drank.  This caused the throwing up.

This brings us to today.  This morning we were cleaning and things because they were in need of happening.  I ran downstairs to check something and bring the iron up when I heard Aiden crying.  I rounded the corner to see that careless mom had left the door at the top of the stairs open and he had tried to come down them.  He was spread eagle on the top two stairs before the landing, head toward the bottom of the stairs.  Thank goodness he had not tumbled all the way to the bottom and there were no injuries.  I feel very blessed and will NEVER leave the door open again.  As you can see Aiden has had kind of an eventful week.  This afternoon we went to church and now we are working on our “shake and bake” dinner.  We are having chicken coated in french fried onions and potatoes coated in onion soup mix and oil.  It will be mmm, mmm good and there was very little preparation.  Gotta love that!  Well, have a good week everyone!  Thanks for reading…

So, I guess that I have been wanting to say a few things about this ever since I started getting e-mails to “Support Amendment 8.”  First of all, we Utahns voted on that particular “Marriage Amendment” in 2004 and so these e-mails were annoying because they no longer applied to me. 

As Election Day drew nearer I started to hear about the leg work that the members of the church were doing in California to encourage getting the amendment passed.  This unnerved me a little bit because in 2004 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS church), though not officially endorsing the amendment, publicized a statement in July endorsing constitutional amendments that define marriage. On October 18 they issued a revised statement with the added text, “any other sexual relations, including between persons of the same gender, undermine the divinely created institution of family.”  This neither endorses nor opposes the amendment.  They stated their opinion and then allowed us as voters to interpret it as we would.  I feel that the large mass of Latter Day Saints that made calls and went door to door was not a separation between church and state and has brought harsher negative consequences to Latter Saints all over the United States.  (I will admit that there was going to some backlash no matter what.)

This is not to say that I don’t feel like marriage ought to be between a man and a woman because it should be.  That is what God intended for his children.  But do I think that we should take away the rights of those who have already chosen differently?  No.  I feel that their unions ought to be recognized as a union (not a marriage) and that they should get the rights and priviledges that come with being a domestic union (or couple or whatever other word you would like to use to label their status of being joined together). 

I do not remember what I voted when the amendment passed in Utah.  But the amendment reads as follows:

1. Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman.
2. No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect.

I wholeheartedly agree with point number 1.  I do not agree with last part (or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect) of point number 2 and as such I think I probably voted no on the amendment. 

So I guess what I am saying is that a lot of time our government creates a blanket statement like Marriage Amendment and then hides things like part two of Utah Amendment three.  Because they know it would not pass on it’s own.  READ THE AMENDMENTS!!!  Don’t just vote based on their title.  One other example of this is, “No Child Left Behind.”  It sounds great doesn’t it.  What parent would want their child left behind in schooling?  What they didn’t tell you is that the expectations of the testing are unrealistic and that it basically ties the hands of many teachers to be able to do much of what they had been able to do before.  In essence, it HAS left our children behind because all of our schools will be “failing” and the teachers will be unable to be as creative in their teaching because they are too busy ensuring that their classes will pass the tests.  Anyway, if you want to read about Utah constitutional amendment 3 then go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Constitutional_Amendment_3  and for Propostion 8 in California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_(2008).  For information on No Child Left Behind you can look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act_of_2001 and here for more info. on how Utah interpreted that bill http://www.schools.utah.gov/nclb/guidance_regulations.htm.  Getting off my soap box now.  🙂

Well hello again!  Another week has come and gone and as of yesterday Aiden is officially 9 months old!  As he gets older and older Brandon and I have begun to discuss in more and more depth just exactly when we want to start trying for baby number two.  I have mixed feelings about it in a wide variety of subjects but we are bothing feeling sooner versus later.  (Still not before Aiden turns 1 though, we aren’t THAT crazy.)  I think that if I had found Mr. Right when I was 20 and not 23 then I would be in less of a hurry with growing my family.  As it is I want to have 4 kids of my own and adopt two and it would be nice to be 40 and not still have kids under age 5 in the house.  Anyway, I don’t even know why I got off on that tangent.  This week has been a busy week.  What with Election day, our visitors from out of town, grocery shopping, helping grandma, and working on Christmas projects.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful.  For Brandon and I election day was like any other day because we had voted on Halloween and I was careful to avoid the news and things most of the day, only checking the numbers online every once in awhile and overhearing the show my dad was watching when the announced Obama as the president elect.  I am still not quite sure that he is the perfect man for the job but I definitely appreciate the history that was made during this election process.  First being that 50ish years ago, African Americans could not even vote and now in just those 50 years they earned the right to vote and won the candidacy for president.  It is a truly wonderful and remarkable accomplishment for the USA.  Second, we had a woman run for president, this too is an amazing event in the history of America.  It gives all kids no matter the gender, race, or religious affilation the possibility that one day they could run for president.  Four years ago, kids still were under the impression that only caucasion males could run for president.  Anyway, enough about that.  Good luck to Obama.

Wednesday Brandon picked up his mom from the airport in the morning and she came over here to my dad’s to visit.  (The living looks fabulous and can be used for entertaining guests once again.  There are still a few dust bunnies here and there but what place of living isn’t a work in progress?)  Anyway, we visited with her and she played with Aiden a little bit.  It was good to see her. 

Around 12:30 we had to take Brandon to work and I took Venetia to pick up her rental car.  After that I took Aiden to WIC to get our new checks and then to the pediatrician.  This check up was supposed to be vaccine free but mean old mommy :p had them give Aiden a flu shot and he has to get a booster shot in 4 weeks.  It went well though and I don’t think the flu shot gave Aiden any problems.  On the way home I ran to Walmart to pick up Aiden’s 8 month photos and they turned out SO cute. 

In the evening Brandon, Aiden, my dad, and I met up with Brandon’s parents at Fazoli’s for a tasty dinner.  Aiden enjoyed sharing my food with me (and it is a good thing he did because I still had leftovers to eat for 2 more meals afterwards.  YUM!) and everyone else seemed to enjoy their meals.  My favorite are the unlimited breadsticks! 

Thursday morning Brandon’s mom visited again for a couple of hours before going to the airport to fly back to AZ with her husband.  While she was here we noticed a HUGE spider on the wall (huge to me at least ok) and after telling her that I don’t do spiders she recommend I spray it with spider spray then wack it with the broom.  UGH!!!!  EEEEWWWWW!  No thank you.  (Although I don’t know why I am SO scared of spiders, we are bigger then they are for heaven sakes.)  Nevertheless the spider had to go so in a state of fear and disgust I sprayed it and wacked it several times before sweeping it out the front door.  😐 That evening we watched Get Smart and I LOVED it!  (It helps that Anne Hathaway was in it as she is one of my favorite actresses.)

Yesterday my dad and I went grocery shopping.  We first went to Costco because he wanted me to try out the chair that they have and look at the external hard drives.  Well once there and realizing that there were no Wii’s left he confessed that on Thursday they had Wii’s and Wii fit games and that the chair thing was a ploy to get me to Costco where upon seeing the Wii he was going to say, let’s buy it right now.  Luckily when we checked out the bagger person mentioned that a game place up the road had a few Wii consoles and Wii fit games.  I called them and sure enough they did!  So, we drove right up there and got them!!!  Yes, the Ferguson/Wilhelmsen household are now the proud owners of a Wii.  🙂  YIPPEEE!  I have already started working in Wii Fit and Brandon and I have been playing the fun games on the Wii Play game c.d.  (My favorite is the cow racing game!)  Anyway…

Today is a take it easy kind of day.  It is stake conference this weekend and we opted to stay home this one last time because next year we are going to be more diligent.  I pondered the decision to go or not all week and friday I finally decided not to (incidentally I would like to point out that I made this decision BEFORE the Wii was mentioned or even purchased and didn’t have any effect on my decision whatsoever!)  Also, today Aiden just discovered how to bite mommy (thankfully there are still only two bottom teeth in that mouth of his) and bit my knee and within 10 mins. bit my cheek.  Hopefully we can nip this new thing in the bud really quick.  Any ideas?  Anyway, we hope that everyone has a good week.  Until next time, thanks for reading…

Well, I hope that everyone had a fun Halloween.  I can’t believe how fast this year is going by and now we already have at least one radio station playing Christmas music.  Now generally I am an avid WAIT UNTIL AFTER THANKSGIVING FOR THE CHRISTMAS MUSIC PLEASE, kind of person.  But I have been so tenderhearted about celebrating Christmas with a child of my own this year that I was actually listening to a few Christmas songs on the radio (Gasp, I know).  There is just something so magical about about introducing the spirit and wonder of the season to your own little one that is unmatched by anything else.  Now I realize that he won’t quite grasp the whole concept of the season this year but it is still a touching thing for me and one that gets me choked up. 

Now on a completely different subject I would like to mention the rules of etiquette that seem to be pretty standard on halloween but that some older trick or treaters (13-18) neglect to follow. 

1. Always say thank you after receiving your treat.

2.  If the porch light is off, do not ring the doorbell.

3. If it is after 9:00 p.m. do not ring the doorbell regardless of whether the porch light is on or not.  (Some people don’t like to leave the light off all night and may have infants who you could wake up.  Or maybe they just barely returned home from their Halloween plans and flipped the light on but have zero candy.) 

When Brandon and I lived in the University Village we were all given signs to put on our door if we welcomed trick or treaters and I was able to put it up when I was ready to receive trick or treaters and take it down when I ran out of candy.  May I suggest that next year if you welcome trick or treaters to put a sign up saying that they are welcome or at least one that says, “We have run out of candy, try back earlier next year.” If you would like to keep your porch light on and ward off nuisance teenagers. 😉  Anyway…

So, I have been trying to make notes of what we do during the week but this week I neglected to.  It went by so fast that Mon.-Thurs. are pretty much a blur.  One of the days Aiden, my dad, and I went looking for a T.V. stand for the downstairs t.v. so that he can move his 2nd t.v. into his room.  We have been having very little luck because all the t.v. stands these days are built for HUGE plasma t.v.’s and are low to the ground and super long.  Oi. 

So on Halloween we went to the Bountiful Library to vote.  We waited in line for an hour but Aiden was very well behaved.  We also made another trip to the storage unit to drop some stuff off.  Brandon worked on a pumpkin for the pumpkin carving contest at Loomis and then I drove him to work.  We will let you know next week if he wins a prize.  Aiden napped really well in the afternoon and then he and I stopped at Walmart before picking Brandon up and going to my grandma’s.  Shortly after we arrived there 3 of my cousins arrived with spouses and kids in tow.  It was fun to see how everyone had dressed up and to get some very cute photos. 

Yesterday morning I ran a couple of errands before going to the Relief Society super activity to pick up my vinyl lettering, eat some soup, and help with a service project (tying a quilt).  It was fun and gave me the opportunity to meet a few more ladies in the ward.  After that Brandon and I dropped Aiden off with my aunt and we went on a date.  We were going to go to the play at Pioneer Theatre but we were running late and I didn’t want to deal with all of the hullabaloo so we just went and saw “Kung Fu Panda” after eating a tasty smoothie from Jamba Juice (I have noticed that each time we go in to Jamba there are less and less smoothie choices, what is up with that?)  Anyway, the movie was pretty funny and it was nice to spend some one on one time with my hubby. 

Aiden was napping when we went to pick him up so we visited with Vicky and Neal for a while and looked at the darling photos that they had taken of Aiden.  We also had some bacon and tomato sandwiches with them (I had cinnamon toast and bacon instead) and Aiden had chicken noodle soup.   Thanks again for babysitting!

In the evening I unboxed my scrapbooks and put them on shelves.  I have also decided to organize a little bit better and to try and get things into years.  I want to scrapbook everything from sophomore year in high school and newer in the standard chronological order.  Newborn to 6-7 years old will be in a photo album and everything in the middle will just kind of go together.  Scrapbooking older less organized stuff is slightly difficult.  Anybody want to plan a scrapbooking day? 

In a few hours we will be headed to church (daylight savings was a shock as usual) and this evening we will be heading back to my aunt’s for family night with the extended family.  Until next week, thanks for reading…