It's a small world, after all...

This is a picture taken yesterday at the Madison XC meet. It was held in Rexburg at the golf course. The girls in this picture are Brianne Garner and Madison Hull. They just recently renewed their acquaintance in the past few weeks. The Garner's lived in our ward in Boise for a few years when these girls were a lot younger. They moved to Arizona, and then to Rexburg. Brad is teaching at BYU-I now.

When we moved to Rigby, we called up the Garners to say "Hi!" A few months later, I saw Carrie at a crosscountry meet in Idaho Falls. A couple weeks after that we got a phone call from Brad inviting us over for FHE. When John hung up the phone, Madi came out of her room and said, "Guess what! At the meet today I ran right next to this girl from Madison the whole time, and when we were through I looked over and it was that girl that used to be in our ward in Boise!"

Their paces seem to be about the same. So here they are again, friends in arch-rival uniforms. It can be like that in crosscountry, and I really like that.

Girl's Road Trip!

Since school was out a couple of extra days last week, Taylor, Madi and I climbed in the car and headed to Hailey. We arrived around noon on Friday, did a little shopping with our cousins and then had a great dinner at Nathan and Elise's. We even roasted marshmallows and made smores on their patio! Then we headed to the condo and had a slumber party! We did all of the girl's hair the same and watched "Pride and Prejudice," and ate popcorn and drank rootbeer. The next morning we had a yummy breakfast and then watched the first session of conference together.

On the way home, we stopped in Arco for gasoline and a hamburger. We ate at Pickle's Place, home of the Atomic Burger. They have great fries (cut them fresh daily!)! They also make the world famous "John's Seasoning" (you can't grill with out it!) at Pickle's. I'm thinking about driving back and purchasing everyone a "Pickle's Place" t-shirt and a bottle of "John's Seasoning" for Christmas. What do you think?

October begins the holiday season # :-)

If you don't already know, I love holidays. This is why I changed my blog background. I am always ready for fall, and what comes quickly after: CHRISTMAS TIME! When we were first married, I played Christmas music all year round. This bothered some people in my family, so now the rule that I try to obey is no holiday music until October. I do have a cd entitled "Ancient Noels" that I can play any time of the year and those who reside with me don't seem to catch on. I have to do this every once in a while just to get a little of that "Christmas rush" that helps me make it until October 1.

The holiday season officially begins the first day of October, when it is not socially unacceptable to have pumpkins and ghosts on your front step. It continues until about the second week of January, when John finally tells me that he is embarrassed to come home from work to find our outside Christmas lights on when everyone else has taken theirs down.

I put the Halloween decorations up the day I took John's birthday decorations down--so I only cheated a little bit this year (and I have only listened to one Christmas song so far!). I couldn't believe how much better I felt after I got them up. It was like this house just became home! Halloween decorations are the first official step of the holiday season. And today I am making applesauce. Tomorrow is supposed to be turning a little cooler. The leaves are beginning to turn orange and yellow. It is potato harvest time! Life is great!