First Big Snowfall of Autumn '08

Addie & her snow "sculpture"
Addie sitting in a drift (with dead sunflowers behind her)
Heidi trying to walk in a drift
Heidi cracking up, as she is wont to do
Our little porch has a hat on!
The snow drifted in the oddest places...here's a drift swooping off the roof on the NW side of the house.
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I kept the kids home from church today because they have bad coughs (and then church was cancelled anyway) but I couldn't resist letting them jump in that fabulous new snow!

Post Script

I have some conference thoughts I need to collect and post, but wasn't it great? President Monson's last talk felt like a hug; Elders Holland and Eyring touched my heart as usual; Elder Bednar moved me deeply to start spiritually creating my day with morning prayers in a way that I had never considered before. I am sooooo thankful for all the counseul and reassurance received this weekend!

Also--does anyone else wish that Elder Uchdorf would say, just once, "Now's the time on conference when we dance!"--or even "Now's the time on conference when we pray," or something Sprocket-ish like that?

My Heck

So Rich is heading up our Stake Emergency Preparedness Fair in Bozeman this weekend. He had to go on the local am radio talk show on Monday and talk about it--he even took calls! We were so proud of him--he sounded so smart-yet-sweet over the radio and had lots of good info to share. I think this year, more than ever, people need to learn about preparedness, especially financial preparedness, although it may be a little late for that.

We were riding the Underground one morning in London and noticed that all the papers that people were reading had panicky headlines about the financial crisis. We thought it was interesting that this thing is indeed global. We also talked about how blessed we are to have counsel and guidance to get us through these times with peace and confidence. Of course there will be sacrifices to make, of course we will feel the pinch in certain areas of our lives, but we know that our home is safe, that our health and our food storage are in good order, etc. We feel concern, but not panic, and that's because the prophets and scriptures are true: "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."

We watched Glenn Beck on DVR this morning and he echoed our concerns well. I couldn't find a video clip, but if you click HERE, you can read the transcript of the show. The first few paragraphs really got to me and I think it's important to hear this view even if you don't agree with it. I , for one, (and Glenn, for two) believe this stupid bail out and crisis could be the end of capitalism as we know it. And if you think that's okay, you're WRONG. There are plenty of socialist nanny states you can move to if you believe that, but where are we fiercely independent capitalists supposed to go if the U.S. caves, tramples the consitution, and becomes just like wussy Europe? We've gone as far west in search of freedom as we can go, people (well, I suppose we can move to Alaska and secede; heck, Montanans are so sick of the feds, we may secede ourselves--then I won't have to move at all, and y'all can come live at the ranch!) There has to be one bastian of independence, at least one city on a hill where we can decide how to live our lives without constant supervision and intervention. While I feel a sense of peace, I wonder what my fellow Americans are thinking and wonder where the majority is going to steer this country ("Hey, where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?").

Again, I can't overstate the moderation I feel in my opinions, but I think it's important to hear all views. So in addition to the poo we're seeing in the MSM and the line of bologna from Dubya, the fed, Barney Frank & friends, and from the presidential candidates, take a few minutes to look into THIS theory. It's out there, and I absolutely, unequivocally refuse to believe the 9/11 conspiracy part (--I think it WAS the event the NWO guys were waiting for, but I don't beleive it was orchestrated by the US--) but everyday the idea of the whole NWO/ global government seems more plausible, even possible (example: yesterday's suggestion of global currency--WHAT? The day we agree with France is the day I'm OUTTA HERE!). I'm just saying awake and arise from the dust and be [wo]men--fight to keep what we have, don't sell out our liberty for security.

End of rant. :)

Now it's time for our family preparedness theme song:

On This Date in History...

16 YEARS AGO, I entered the Empty Sea (MTC) to prepare to serve in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission. WOW! What an old lady I am.

Even better news... our favorite Euro-photos are now uploaded as slideshows at euromelin! YAY! You can watch the slideshows small within the blog posts or you can double click on the screen--it will open to picasa--then click the green arrow in the upper left that says "slideshow" and it will show you the full-screen version. ENJOY!

What Was I Thinking?

They say that east-to-west jet lag is easier to deal with than west-to-east, which makes sense, but for some reason, I cannot get my clock adjusted to home time! I wake up around 4 or 5 every morning and I can hardly see straight by dinner time. I'm dying!


For some reason I assumed I'd be fine and scheduled the kids' well child check ups and flu vaccinations for 11 hours after I arrived home (huh?), so that kept me up Thursday. And then I volunteered to chaperone Addie's field trip to Rocky Creek Farm on Friday. While I was so happy to go, I was really draggin' booty! When I picked up Heidi and James and we all came home around 3:30, I just changed in to my pajamas and forced myself to stay awake until 6:30 or so. Rich brought home pizza and a DVD for the kids, and I was gone to the world. Of course this is not helping me transition very well, but it sure felt good to SLEEP!

I have also drunk more than three gallons of water since I got home, so I think I came home pretty dehydrated. They don't believe in drinking plain water over the pond, so when I did get a drink, it was usually a caffeinated beverage which only added to the problem. Erin did have water at her house and I drank tons, but apparently not enough. I am so glad to have a quiet conference weekend to recouperate!

I am working on the promised photo updates. I will post the photos on euromelin as I get them cropped. As it is (at 8:20am on Saturday) I have been up working on photos for three hours!

For now, though, I must post the adorable photos of Addie's field trip--it was such a perfect fall day, and I LOVED being there with my little group of cute first graders!

Addie & her classmate, Jake, at the RCF sign
Addie's class waiting for their hayride on the haystack
Addie & her classmate, Azalea
Addie amongst her classmates
On the Hayride
My little gang (minus Rylee, our neighbor, who was tying his shoe) at the pumpkin patch:

Jake, Azalea, Casey, and Addie

My group (minus Casey this time) beating up a scarecrow: Rylee, Azalea, Scarecrow, Addie, and Jake As we walked through the raspberry patch, it got very overcast, but in never rained on us!
A beautiful scene at Rocky Creek Farm

(our town is about 15 miles in the distance there)

All the kids brought apples to make cider. Here's Addie putting her apples in the grinder.
Addie watching the grinder
All those apples (about 70) made a gallon of cider
The cider press
After making cider, the kids played on the haystack and in the teepee for about a half hour.

Addie got a bunch of them to be "roosters"

(Brylea, Kendall, Kalob, Addie, Robert, Jolene, Rylee)

Addie & her pal, Casey

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Happy Fall, Y'all!

Home. YAY!

After nearly missing our plane at Heathrow (we checked in an hour late--a story I'll tell later), we had a smooth and enjoyable trip back over the pond. I am pleased to say that I have no anxiety about traveling at all anymore, so the trip home was much more relaxing than the trip out.

Grandma Melin had the kids nap so they could meet us at 11pm at the Bozeman Airport. It was so awesome to see them again! We must have just sat on the floor and hugged for five minutes! We were all snuggled down in our big king log bed by 12:30am, MDT--only 25 hours after we woke up in Beck Row and headed down to London! Phew!

When I catch up with my jet lag, I will finally crop and post all the pix I wanted to post, especially of the last leg of our trip with the Caspers. It was lovely in every way and we loved being with them and their fun friends, and we loved the spirit of the UK.

We are so happy to be home and even more grateful for the life we have in Montana, but we enjoyed our adventure (and one another's company) so much!

Exploring Thorncote

Check out Euromelin for an awesome

family history moment!

Jolly Ol' England

We just got home from the London Temple! It was a lovely day with the Casper Family--all of them--and we really enjoyed the vast park that is the temple grounds. Rhett, Richard, and I went to a 1pm session while Erin and her neighbor Valerie had a picnic with the kids, then we came out at 3pm and took family pictures for an hour, then we just hung out on the grounds with the kids and Rhett while Erin and Valerie did their session. We took lots of pix of the Tudor houses surrounding the temple, and of the cute Casper kids, and we sat on the loverly grass and watched planes drop in to land at Gatwick. The trip took us all day (1oam -10pm, including our stop for pizza dinner on the way home), and it was delightful. We will not be going to Bath this trip, but we are hoping to make a trip out to Dover and then over to Bedfordshire to find Christopher Layton's birthplace before we leave on Wednesday. 

Yesterday was just a "chill" day. We slept in, did our laundry, went to a program at Eliza's first grade, had lunch on base, and just hung out at home with Erin and the kids. It was nice to fit some relaxing in to our busy schedule. Neither of us has been in the mood to crop and upload pictures, but there are plenty of pretty ones of Edinburgh and the Temple and the Casper family. We'll share them soon.

For now, I have a temple hangover and I should hit the hay. Family, we love and miss you so much! Being around these fun kids makes me wish you were here--you'd have so much fun with the Casper kids! More later (ps: Enjoy the Women's Broadcast double for me tonight, Sister friends! I think this may be the first time in my adult life that I have missed it, and I can't wait to catch it when we get home).

Catch Up With Us!

Wanna read about Paris? London? Edinburgh?

Then click here and read up!

Caspers and East Anglia, here we come!

Back To His Birthplace

I have been posting about my Euro-Vaycay over on euromelin, but I just wanted to post a howdy here tonight. I am way too tired from walking forty-eleven miles around WURZBURG and WERTHEIM and ROTHENBURG today, and I keep having to look for the Y and the @ on this crazy German keyboard.

Yes, Richard made his dream trip back to his birthplace (Wurzburg) and his first home (Wertheim) today. It was so much fun to tour the "Residenz" then walk all over town taking pix, eating brats and schnitzel sandwiches, checking out the marktplaz and the Main and Tauber Rivers. My feet and calves are KILLING me (go figure-somehow a month of working out just didnät prepare me for walking all day).

We are going to video chat with our kids now and hit the hay. Tomorrow we head down to Bavaria and we visit Neuschwanstein Castle Sunday...fun! Leave me some comments and donät forget to click on "London Calling."

Yikes

This is what I will wake up to next Sunday morning.

I guess I am freaking out a lot more than I thought I would. I woke up with a stiff neck and some gastrointestinal disturbance this morning, tell tale signs of anxiety--even though I am on medication (chill pills). We're all ready to go and I have the best tour guide in the world, the best nanny, the best hosts...I guess I'm just stressed about leaving my babies and my home. I suppose my current identity is all wrapped up in these things and it's hard to imagine even a few days without them.

HOWEVER--I don't neccesarily thinks that's good, because ultimately I am ME, and I am Richard's wife, and I should be thrilled to enjoying those parts of my identity for two weeks. Heaven knows Richard and I could use some date time...

So tomorrow at 4am we head to Bozeman to catch our plane to Germany and we won't be back until midnight on October 1/2nd. (And bad guys, if you're reading this, the kids and the grandparents are staying here, so don't EVEN try to rob us!). I am soooo excited to see all the sights, and even more excited to see Erin! A good night's sleep and quiet conversations and walks with my hubby don't sound too bad, either...

Oh, see? I feel better already!

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PS: So after today, we will be posting about our adventures at EUROMELIN. Click on over...

PPS: Yesterday my darling amigas Jenn and Debbie came over (independently--one in the morning, one at night) and brought me little birthday/ bon voyage gifts. Jenn, (master of paper crafts) made me a gorgeous European Journal, and Debbie made me some fantastic bling: a silver and crystal bracelet that goes with everything. If I had more time (and more sanity) I would write about what these two girlfriends mean to me. Even though we are all way busier than we wish we were and we don't get to "hang out" like we wish we could, I feel their love and support constantly and I hope they feel mine. Thank you for your friendship and for your gifts from the heart, amigas!