Fall came and went

The fall was here with it's colors, sunshine and plethora of outdoor activities.  Now as I look back at the pictures from 2 months ago I can't help but think, "Where did it go?"  I have to admit that there were a few weeks in there where I didn't know if I was going to make it in the Pacific Northwest.  Rain, clouds, husband gone, kids at home; all the makings for a very depressed Judy.

One day I was literally laying in bed at 1 in the afternoon and I thought, "I want my Mommy".  So I called her up and asked if we could come down to Arizona for a week and play.  She said of course and we made plans.  Nothing like a little sunshine to scare the blues away.

A new friend Debbie, who lives down the street, invited Sam to spend the night and go to church with them at First Pres. downtown with a field trip to the arboretum afterwards.  I met up with them after I went to church and we had a lovely time looking at all the trees.  I so missed the variation of trees that grow in the Northwest while we lived in Arizona.  I saw my dear old friend Gingko and was reminded of the many varieties of maple.  All having their unique characteristics, showing their color off and vying for our attention.  It was breathtaking.  It was also fun for the boys to get out and play, run, climb trees and throw leaves at one another.  I love living outside.

A picture I took and then made it into a little artistic rendition using the Rhonna app.  Very fun.  I took some old 8x10 picture frames, chalk painted them and then put pictures that I dressed up with the Rhonna app.  A very fun and inexpensive way to decorate.

With fall came the seemingly never ending outpouring of leaves.  There are a lot of trees in our neighborhood!  Luckily for us we had a manageable amount, which I chopped up with my lawnmower and used to mulch my soon-to-be-flower beds.  I had to laugh just tonight as I was thinking about the little business Balin and I owned in Bellevue, aptly named The Neighborhood Gardener.  While the leaves fell, I grabbed my blower, rake, lawn mower and kids and went to a couple of neighbor's houses to help them pick up leaves.  The above picture was from our friends the Emmel's house, who live on the lake, under two ginormous trees.  The kids and I raked and raked and raked making multiple leaf piles.  The kids asked in the beginning if they couldn't rake them all into one huge pile to jump in - an hour later they said that would be wayyyy to much work.  I agreed.

School with the kids has been mostly positive for the past month or so.  They've been staying on top of their course work, which is a lot.  I think Sam has learned how to write 4 different types of papers and has a paper due about every other week.  He is not a huge fan of writing, but as I'm finding out, I'm not a huge fan of writing papers under pressure either.  As you can see in the above photos, they're using their time well, most of the time, as they were reading while they ate lunch.

Lucky for the kids, their school work is mobile.  So we packed up our bags and headed down to sunny AZ for a week with friends and family.  Balin dual purposed the trip by meeting with CEG guys at the Prescott office and it was great to have him along.

From the airport we went straight to Glendale where we saw Jack competing in his final band competition for his high school career.  Sue and Sophie came down to watch also, which was a fun surprise for Sophie as it was her birthday.  From the performance we headed to Grandma's house,where we all spent the night.  It was really fun to watch movies of us as a family, when the kids were young and we were younger too.  After family movies, we watched another movie together.  It made me laugh when 20 minutes into the movie Sue says, "I think I've seen this movie".  My dad was famous for doing the exact same thing, except it would often take him almost half of the movie before he realized he'd already seen it.  Made me smile.

  

Sunday we headed up to Prescott where the kids could hardly wait to meet up with their friends.  I spent a lot of time driving the kids around to their various play dates and chatting with parents.  It was so good to see all our friends and the kids had a great time with multiple sleep overs.  In the picture below Faith and Perrin discovered the heated floors in Christie's guest house.

 
I really enjoyed my time in Prescott also.  We stayed with Christie, who lives across the street from my sister.  It was so lovely to have quality and quantity of time with my dear friend and my sister.  It always feels like a vacation when I stay there.  The next day was dedicated to hanging out with Anna, which was very life giving.  She and I went on a hike, picked up and shuttled kids around, went out for lunch with Troy from Alphinhikers.com, all the while we talked and talked and talked.  Some people I never get tired of talking to and Anna is one of those.  We ended the evening with drinks out at our favorite watering hole and dinner at El Gato Azul.  It was such a great day.

The following morning Balin went to the office and I headed over with Perrin to the Reyes' house.  Sandra showed me how much she loved me by cooking me huevos rancheros.  So good.  The conversation was amazing and I was touched once again by the depth of friendships I have.  On that note, one of the highlights of the trip was when Anna and I went into a coffee shop called Wild Iris and I saw some people I knew - like 10 people over the course of the morning.  It was so heart filling to know that one day I will walk into the coffee shop here in Liberty Lake and know a bunch of people.  I have hope that I will have friends again. :)

 We finished up our trip going back to Grandma's house where we went golfing, swimming and did other random fun things.  It was so lovely to go and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. 

Sam and Perrin on the plane headed home.  They sat next to each other and chatted away. It was great.

 

A girlfriend of mine introduced me to essential oils at the beginning of October.  I did some research and had the thought that if these oils do as they claim to do, I've got to get some and tell others about it.  So last week I had a little get together with just the neighborhood ladies from Dreamwood Circle.  It was pretty fun to see everyone as once the weather got cold and dark, everyone stays inside.  We had about 15 people come and a friend gave a class on the origin of oils, uses and physical benefits of using oils for everything from cleaning, beauty and health care, both preventive and remedial.  It was really interesting and I learned a lot.  I'm hoping to have another get together up at Schweitzer as most of the ladies I'm meeting and doing life with go up to the mountain every weekend.  

If you have any interest in learning more about essential oils, I'd encourage you to google them and also look on pinterest.  The website I use is doTerra.com Their pretty cool. If you still have interest, let me know and I'd be happy to bring my treasure chest of oils to you or send you some for you to try.  Just let me know.