Hell on Wheels

Another week has gone by. I am constantly turning things over in my mind, but meanwhile I am trying to be productive, both at home and at work, though granted I feel like I am failing at both. My mind is not fully in either place. Watching Hell on Wheels has been a nice, but temporary diversion for me. I started it with Larry and Abby, but have swiftly moved passed them this week as I am almost finished with season 4. Yes. It is that good. I will be happy to re-watch with them though.

I went to counseling on Wednesday for tweaking as I call it. Sometimes we need a little help getting over some of the bumps in life. Bumps that I thought I had worked through and new bumps. Actually, I am a believer that everyone would benefit from it. A wise friend told me today that in years past we would sit around a quilt and visit and share and that was our therapy. So true. I miss those times. I am grateful that I have a network of close friends that I love very much.

I went with Bigelow's to Pumpkinland and watched Morris put pumpkin after pumpkin in his wagon. He knows what he wants and goes after it! I thought I would try to find a pumpkin field to go to next year for better pictures.

 

Found a nifty pink trike for Lucy at a thrift store this week. No. 

I did not do my hair today. This is my nap hair.

 

We painted the laundry room white this weekend and cleared it out.

 

Little white lights bring a night time charm to Pebbles

Bigelow Family Fall of 2015

 

Morris

 

Conrad

 

Phoebe

Sunday Dessert... Homemade Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with 

Fresh Raspberry Whipped Cream Frosting. Yum!

 We go to sleep at night listening to Abby & friends :)

Celebrating... then bowling

We walked over to Campbell's home and celebrated with hugs and well wishes. Kaeli is a beautiful bride and we are so excited for her happy beginning to her new life. My favorite time was watching Mark and seeing him so happy. He is so loved by each one of us and God had been so good in bringing us together. Afterwards, we went bowling and had a ball! Jack rolled his 2mph, Larry and Josh had the strength and more consistent high scores. We had a lot of laughs because we are all capable of getting a strike and then guttering the ball... no rhyme or reason to it. It is something we definitely want to do again and again!

Wickedly Good!

We have been looking forward to going to The Capital Theatre in Salt Lake to see Wicked all summer long... We left early to get some dinner and headed to Cheesecake Factory. Under a time crunch, my begging, got us quick seating and we enjoyed a yummy dinner, topped off with favorite slices of cheesecake. Then we were off, with no minutes to spare to the theatre.  Intermission brought us a never ending line out the ladies room, but after much waiting, those who could wait no longer headed over to the men's room. I am looking forward to seeing it again and again. 

Swinging...

One of the good things about grandkids is we go to the park once again to swing and slide and climb.  Usually it's in the evenings when there is a breeze coming through that cools down the hot day. Feeling grateful Cascade Park is so close by : )

Drive by Yard Selling

I watched Conrad, Phoebe and Morris on Saturday morning while Katie worked at Pebbles.  I packed the kids up and we went drive by yard selling. Kids were happy with their cereal in a baggy and I was happy making my way through the yard sales, hoping I would come across one that was worth stopping by for. When we were almost through, we drove by a park and Conrad's face lit up and said, A playground! Can we stop please and get our wiggles out? We did. The kids happily kicked their shoes off along the way, leaving a trail as they ran to the playground. We came home hot, sticky, empty handed and in a car scattered with dried cereal... I remind myself that it's the thrill of the hunt and we got ourselves a McDonald's ice cream cone on the way home : ) It was a good morning!

Park Time

Sometimes it's fun to just pack up a simple dinner and head to the park on our bikes. This time we went to the park by Lindsey & Tylers :  ) 

Food Truck Round Up Again

Food Truck Round Up was even better when Larry's Mom and Dad met us there this past week... with some tweaking, it can be a definite do again soon. We loved having them come. We just need to bring some folding camping chairs and we will be perfectly comfy and full at the same time. Sampling Katie's food tonight... the taste of the Sweeto Burrito Buffalo Chicken was my favorite! Conrad and Phoebe had a great time looking down into the drain and Phoebe went home looking like a chimney sweeper's child : )  

Food Truck Round Up

On Ashlee's actual birthday, we went to the Food Truck Roundup held down in south Provo every thursday night during warm weather 5-9pm. We weren't sure what to expect, so we took our appetites and met there. We tried a little bit of everything... corn dogs, pizza, tacos, waffles, hamburgers, burritos....  Everyone shared and had a bit of everything. It was definitely a do again. From what we hear, different trucks come each week. Thursday nights may never be the same : )

Happy Birthday Ashlee!

Farr's Fresh

Farr's Fresh. Our favorite go to place for a quick treat...

Good Morning Sunshine

There is only so much repetitive back and forthiness I can stand. To Pebbles. Home. To Pebbles. Home. Day after day. After awhile, I feel like I start to lose myself and a connection to life and then I have to break the routine and just get out. Conrad spent the night so we could wake up at 6am and start our hike to watch the sun come up. We went through the McDonald's drive through and I got him breakfast. We ate in darkness, then headed up. Conrad liked to make his own trail, always telling me to follow him. Every once in a while he would roll down a hill because he liked it. We picked out our favorite rocks. Mine were covered in lichen, his were shaped like knives and guns. He is a boy. We talked for a long time about this beautiful world God made and then he started to tell me about Satan and his plan for us, but Jesus had a better plan and he was glad we followed Jesus. When we got to the top, he asked if he can play the Wii when we get back... then we talked about all of the stuff in our lives... the toys, the Wii, the movies and how we can't take any of it with us when we go to heaven. I asked him what we do take and he thoughtfully said what is in our hearts and what is in our heads. I thank God for Conrad and his wisdom. He already feels the spirit and loves the Lord. He is a very happy, thoughtful young boy...  I sure like our times we spend together.

election day

I headed over to the campaign headquarters of Richard Brunst and David Spencer on election night as the results started coming in. It was fascinating to watch the numbers as the precincts came in. In the beginning we were down,  but slowly we caught up and overtook our opponents. Cheering everywhere!! A good message and hard work with small money beat down the candidates that were funded by large outside money this time. It felt so good.While Wayne Burr and Sharon Anderson did not win, but I am looking forward to working with them as we bring more transparency to Orem in the coming years. 

heaven in a box

These doughnuts deserve a spotlight all their own. I dream of them and thank the Lord they are clear in Salt Lake and not nearby. We brought some home for Sunday dinner and cut them in fourths so everyone could sample all of them... we loved them all :)

salt lake trip

Larry thought a Salt Lake overnight trip with Kelsie and Abby before Josh comes home would be good. It was. Two nights. I love Marriott Hotels. Laying around and watching movies. Sleeping in. Time stops.

Doughnut stops to Bandbury Cross Doughnuts for vanilla cake strawberry glazed doughnuts with a sprinkle of coconut. The first day, they accidently put strawberry glazed doughnuts in our box. Not the same. Devastated. The complete disregard for my devastation by my family made it even more so. I had to wait another day.

Eating at Hires and Kelsie and Abby are staring at a young couple with kids. They had no life or energy for each other, just mechanically going through the motions. Their faces were blank.

Kelsie said, 'Is this is my future?' She vowed then and there that it will never happen. I think Abby never wants to have kids.

Wake me up, we have a lot of eating to do tomorrow :) We didn't. We had a nice brunch at Ruby's Diner and didn't eat the rest of the day.

I got the blog caught up and asked Larry if he ever read it. 'Maybe a month ago'. What was the last one you ever read? Idk. Maybe Easter? Easter?

Kelsie: He's trying to make up crap to make you happy

Elevator opens: Well wait. 'There's room'. We have baggage. Then I call into the distance, 'Are others here from the car yet?' I know Larry doesn't like to be crammed into an elevator with a bunch of strangers.

Going to Anthropology to look. Maybe they will have a plate? A plate of what?, asks Larry? It's the only thing we can afford in the store.

Ruths Diner. Rocky Mountain Hot cocoa. Taking home a doughnuts for Sunday dessert for everyone.  Good weather. Are you taking another picture? Kelsie is counting down every 10 minutes until Josh gets home. 

I come near Abby and she immediately tenses up and giggles... thinking a hug will be next. I love being with these two : )

haunted forest

It took Larry and I too long to make it over to the Haunted Forest where Paul works during the Halloween Season, putting up the gruesomeness and doing a good job of it. We finally all piled in the car and headed over, treated by Paul. Ashlee stayed home and watched all the little kids. I grabbed onto Larry, Katie onto Ransom, Lindsey onto Tyler and Paul had Kelsie and Abby tucked tightly on both sides of him. We were good to go. I believe I screamed more than anyone, though I did hear a scream come out of Ransom. People jump out at you in the dark and while they can't touch you, if they can tell you are scared, they follow you around. Creepiness at  it's best. Thank you Paul!

goodbye leaves

Summer seems to go by far too quickly. It takes just a few cool evenings to start the leaves changing their colors. Fall is here. With the dry summer, the leaves quickly changed and dropped this year. We missed most of the colorful leaves, but still the beauty of our mountains, now with a dusting of snow, take my breath away. Afterwards, we went to Malawi's for a quiet dinner... sign of a good meal : )

meet the orem city candidates

The questions and answers at the Senior Friendship building were good this past week. I was disappointed that the large room was only half full, of the same people I see time and time again at these events. I wonder how to get a wake up call out to the public about issues that Orem is facing... Utopia. Increasing taxes. Midtown Village (huge unfinished building in Orem). Care Tax. Transparency. Becoming more pro-business. Sign ordinance. 

I talked Kelsie into coming because Larry was in school and she ended up really liking it. That made me very happy. There is big money backing the candidates that seem to want to carry on politics as usual and Orem city is filled with their big signs everywhere. Hard to fight against, but we continue to get the word out and hope.

My picks? 

Richard Brunst, Sharon Price Anderson, Wayne Burr and David Spencer

pp

Our very favorite Phillip Phillips came for a concert here at UVU in Orem this past week... PP to us, and yes... We. Love. Him. Three of my girls and Ali... though I know Katie and Lindsey wish they had come too!

sleepover

Katie and Ransom's Anniversary was this past week and the kids got to spend the night with us. Conrad was counting down how many sleeps before he got to come. We held our breath and crossed our fingers with Phoebe because she is known to start screaming in the middle of the night. She did. After her second time, I was thinking I could maybe stuff her in a closet, but that was my tiredness thinking. My decision making was not good and I am amazed that Larry and I were able to have 5 children. We had a great time with them and hope for many more sleep overs...

Chocolate milk tea parties with Phoebe always asking for more... you know those little cups sure don't hold very much. Sugar toast. Hide and seek in the dark with flashlights. A walk to visit La La (Ash and Paul and Jack). Ice cream. Singing. Story time. Plenty of snuggles. Taking a few pictures on Instagram and realizing I know nothing about it, but wanting to jump in and learn. My day ended with a nap :)

Conrad and Phoebe