Me and my buddy, Cooper. What are the chances that we'd show up to the church party wearing the same costume not once, but two years in a row?? What should we wear next year? 
Dave's dad is staying with us for a couple of weeks. He lives in a house way out in the country up in Idaho. Dave didn't grow up trick-or-treating. (Don't worry, he got plenty of candy at the school Halloween carnivals). I don't think Dave's dad has ever worn a halloween costume in his 89 years. This was a challenge. I emailed all his grandkids for suggestions. They had some great ideas - Mr Monopoly, an Idaho potato, a pirate, combat fatigues, a cowboy, a pirate, a lumberjack, and a barbershop singer. I headed off to the thrift store with many ideas in mind, thinking whatever piece I could find at a good price, that would be the costume. I found a pirate hat and patch right when I walked in so that was that. He has a bit of a memory problem, so each day I told him we were preparing to go to a costume party. One day he'd be horrified that he would have to wear a costume, the next day (having forgotten that we'd already talked about it) was ready to be the life of the party wearing a pink polka dot dress. Then the next day he'd be flabbergasted that anyone would bother to work on a costume for a silly party. Finally, I just handed him some clothes and told him to go change and he couldn't imagine why we would want to dress up to go to a party, then he had the time of his life. He was all "AAARRRRR" like a pirate all night. 
(Can you find Waldo?)
Melanie got quite creative with the cardboard boxes and odds and ends around the house. The problem with this costume is that you can't quite function - she couldn't touch her two hands together, so she would pick up a piece of candy, then toss it to to her bucket in her other hand. Getting anything to her mouth was impossible. I think her friends started using her costume as a table to set their drinks down. 
She stayed at the party for a while then off to go party hopping with her friends (her life is so wild and exciting - she left one family friendly church party, to go to another family-friendly church party)
Sunday night we celebrated Rachel's birthday. After dinner and presents and cake, we carved pumpkins which always evolves into the annual pumpkin seed fight. Kirsten and her husband Adam were able to come have some fun and make a mess with us too.
The method of the pumpkins seed fight is to squeeze the slimy seed between your fingers until it flings our of your grip and flies across the table - extra points if it sticks on someone's face. In the midst of hundreds of pumpkin seeds flying around the dining room, Roxanne remained focused on her masterpiece. 
Dave had a unique method for carving his pumpkin. His motto - "There's a power tool for every job." 
The highlight of my weekend really had nothing to do with Halloween. I spent the day planting winter grass seed and spreading manure all around the backyard - almost 20 bags of steer manure - yay! There is no possible way of getting through that project smelling good. I don't have much of a green thumb, but I'm giving our yard a good effort this month. My goal is to have the flower beds full, the trees trimmed, and the winter grass thick for a party in December. Rachel is graduating from ASU and Brady is coming home from his mission!! Party at our house!! Clear your calendar - everyone is invited! (I don't know when the party is going to be, just clear the last couple weeks of December and I'll let you know!) The method of the pumpkins seed fight is to squeeze the slimy seed between your fingers until it flings our of your grip and flies across the table - extra points if it sticks on someone's face. In the midst of hundreds of pumpkin seeds flying around the dining room, Roxanne remained focused on her masterpiece. Dave had a unique method for carving his pumpkin. His motto - "There's a power tool for every job." 
Suzanne and I went bowling last week. I haven't done that in years. We just stopped by and bowled 2 games. I was impressed that our scores were over 100! How can you not love rental bowling shoes. And they even had a vending machine to get socks. They weren't new socks. They were rental socks, folded and for sale in the vending machine. A weird, yet ingenious, vending machine usage.
There has been a lot of car repair going on the last couple of months:
This is partly because of acquiring a 25 year old car and trying to get it up to par. But also because we all drive old cars. The kids have had to buy their own cars and as you can guess, that means they are not driving fresh off the factory floor models. We do a lot of work to keep them running, with a complicated system of trading cars when one or more is out of commission (and when I say "we" do a lot of work on the cars, I clearly don't mean "me") This picture features Dave working solo, which he is wonderful to help the girls with the mechanics of their cars, but he has taught them well. Rachel is good to come home, jack up her car and change the brakes, replace a bumper, fix a broken mechanical piece of a window, etc. She is very handy with the wrenches.
Melanie and I tied a quilt on General Conference weekend. Although she has a nice comforter for her bed, she still often reached for her pink ballerina blanket that we made together when she was in 2nd or 3rd grade. While I don't have anything against pink ballerinas, this particular quilt was faded beyond recognition and was shredded and worn from many years of use. 
I spent the evening last night doing Brady's taxes. He worked for just a few days in 2010 before he left on his mission. He didn't owe anything so I didn't worry about taking care of them in April. We was due a whopping $6 return. If it had been a credit card, or a business that owed him money, I would have let it go. But somehow, I feel a great need to not let the IRS keep our money. So I spent a larger than prudent amount of time last night filling out the paperwork to get him his $6 back (minus the cost of a postage stamp, he nets $5.56!)
He has a very mechanical mind. He can take apart anything and remember how it goes back together. When I use the hose attachment on my vacuum, I can hardly remember how it goes back when I'm done. Once Brady and Dave were rebuilding the engine on the van. The engine was taken apart piece by piece. Hundreds of car parts were laying all over the carport floor. Dave had gone inside for a minute, and our Bishop walked up the driveway and saw Brady (a young teenager then) amongst all the car parts and said - "Does your Dad know you did that?"
Last week I had a lucky, lucky opportunity to attend part of a Cardiology Conference. I sat in the audience as the speaker reviewed and enhanced my knowledge of dyspnes, asystole, tachycaria, fossa ovalis, ganglionic plexi and axons, paroxysmal cavotricuspid isthmus, typical atrial flutter, and thromb embolism.
I've been involved with music all my life and she regularly comes up with theory that I never knew existed. Obviously, this is Webern's Op 21 mvt 1 charted out. (Oh to be a music major...)
After that, I became a dull traveling companion, I passed out asleep in the car all the way home.
She left the house a little bit jealous of us though, because we got to spend the afternoon with a nail gun and roofing shingles. Dave and I rewarded our efforts with a Friday night movie. Sadly, it was kind of a cheesey movie, and we didn't have time for dinner before we left so we actually ate dinner at the concession stand at the theater. (No, not one of the new cool dinner theaters. We ordered dinner at the same counter that you buy popcorn and gummy bears.) We go to the movies a lot, but hardly ever visit the concessions. I realize they do sell some sorts of food, but it just seems like getting invited to go out to dinner at the gas station mini mart. But we were starving so . . . theater pizza for dinner.
The bad part about being up there so early is that it was still a bit chilly. We stood with our toes in the edge of the water like this for quite a while before anyone got brave enough to actually get in. It became more pleasant for swimming later in the morning, but crowds of people started coming later in the morning too. 
Then the day just got better . . . Dave and I went up on the roof and put shingles on until almost 10 pm.
Dave called me outside to come look at something the first evening. I walked out into the backyard barefoot and he suggested maybe I shouldn't be outside without my shoes on just yet until we run the magnet through the grass a few more times. A few sweeps across the yard produced this. 
I wish we had a 7 year old on our block. I would have paid good money to have a kid drag a big magnet around the yard all afternoon. What kid doesn't like magnets? Oh and this project has given me lovely 
I feel like I had a whole week to celebrate my birthday. It started with Suzanne announcing to the world that I was 50. (Roxanne's comment: oooooooh, you're gunna be in troooublee! You posted her age on facebook for all the world to see, haha ) We certainly got our fill of Suzanne's wonderful birthday cake. It was layer upon layer upon layer of various chocolates. Delicious!
Melanie and Ben sang all the Queen songs. You can tell what they're singing here, right? Correct! Bohemian Rhapsody.
I was actually inspired with some new ideas for prelude on our church organ for this week. Why have I never thought of Phantom of the Opera on a Sunday morning? And then finish the closing hymn with a dramatic finger run all the way down the keyboard to a dramatic bass note.
As if we hadn't eaten enough today, we came home to cake and presents. Brady sent home a gift for me so it seemed like he was here to celebrate with us, too. Melanie made a multi-layers red velvet, chocolate mousse cake with a nut topping. Sadly, there were so many candles burning, and the traditional birthday wishes were taking so long, that a section of nuts caught on fire. I'm choosing not to post pictures of the cake because it just looks like a dangerous ball of fire in our dining room. I almost got a sunburn from it while blowing out the candles.