One more once. . . Bwuhaahaahaahaa!

Okay. I promise this is the last Halloween photo. Friday night was pretty wet, but not nearly so much as Saturday. We had 3 inches fall that day. So when things finally started to clear on Sunday I happened to see our jack-o-lantern had sprouted a new feature. No that's not a tongue sticking out it's mouth - yes, it's a snail (a slug-in-a-shell). I just couldn't resist posting the photo. See ya in the funny papers!

Halloween LII

That's right, 52 (LII) versions of Halloween for me. Below is what I did for our place this year. The skeleton I bought last year is still great. I bought a hooded cape for the Jack-O-Lantern, and the flashing eyeballs are another purchase from last year.

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I took a couple of "ensemble" pictures to try to give you the whole effect. But best of all is the video clip that shows the fog machine going.

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We've got people who come by our place just to see what I"ve done this year. In fact, one couple said they had to come back this year because last year their kids were too afraid to go up to our door. Yes!
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Another Week, More Old Photos

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Okay, this will probably be the last of the photos from the Pumpkin Farm. I just have had time to work on the video.

Things are pretty busy at work. We have a public appearance at City Hall this Thursday to play for the welcoming ceremony for students coming from Toride, Japan. Yuba City has this 'sister city' agreement with Toride and every year they send some students here then we send some students there. My band kids get asked to play for the welcoming ('cause they do such a good job). It takes about an hour total and I give them treats afterward to make it enjoyable for them.

The Protect Marriage discussion is heating up. Several of my students have said their parents wnat yard signs if I can get them. I delivered. The polls are very close, and we still believe we'll win!

Stake Conference

Yesterday and the day before was stake conference for us. For those who may remember, this is somewhat of a change from how it has been - or how it is scheduled for the future. Usually we have this conference in December, but many of the stake conferences around us were also changed to this month for some reason. My speculation is that being just prior to the November election it gave those speaking a chance to address, in a stake setting, important moral issues facing members in California this year.

The major theme turned out to be faith and hope. Very inspirational and uplifting. For further insight, read Numbers 13-14 and 1 Nephi 3-4. We had a wonderful spirit at the conference. I thoroughly enjoyed every speaker. Elder William F. Reynolds of the Seventy was our visiting authority and it was a pleasure to have him in our home. He was very down-to-earth and easy going.

The really fun part was when it came to his attention that two missionaries whom he had served with in the New England States Mission 40 years ago were living here in the stake - and married to each other. Sister Morgan and Elder Reid. (That's right, our very own Reids from down the street) It was fun to hear Elder Reynolds say: "I see Elder Reid had the good sense to come home and marry the beautiful red-headed Sister Morgan." We ate lunch together with them and Elder Reynolds before I took him to the airport. What fun!

All in all it was a great time. Just this in closing: I hope that none of my children or grandchildren will ever look at stake conference as a week off that they can go and do soenmthing else. There is far too much good to be had at ANY stake conference to ever miss even one. We love you.

More photos from BPF

Here are some more pictures from our trip to the Bishop's Pumpkin Farm with Grant and Lucy. Oh yeah, Pam was there too. Also a few from around home just prior to my birthday celebration. Grant on the truck; sticking his head through the picture frame; and smiling over grandpa's half completed birthday cake. Yummm! Lucy is shown enjoying her portion of the cake later that day.

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The Great Pumpkin Farm!

Pam and Grant and Lucy went with us to the Bishop's Pumpkin Farm this afternoon. Grant was just beside himself with so many things to play on. But you know what his favorite thing was? The big mound of dirt! He ran up and down that thing over and over again. Lucy's favorite things were the slides. Curly, straight or bumpy, she didn't care. (Sorry, no pictures of the slides. I'll try to post a video later this week.

Anyway, here are a few shorts to give you a flavor of the experience

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Okay, this last one is not from the Pumpkin farm, but from my birthday. Mom made my favorite orange, orange cake with candy corn. We had Rich and Joanne and Grandma over for eggs, pancakes. sausages and. . . CAKE! (Grant made the face and put the candles on for hair)

Tagged

No, I'm not turning this into a gang site (Westside Mormons? no - not that kind of 'tagged') but since I enjoyed Lorna's tag, and Michelle's tag, I may as well weigh in:

1. I was a round little kid when I was young. My parents kindly called me "stocky." It wasn't till the 7th grade before I began to thin out.

2. The reason for thinning out was that I grew 10.5 inches in height in two years. (5'0" at the end of 6th grade - 5'10.5" at the end of 8th grade).

3. I've been to 37 of the 50 states and at least 10 foreign countries.

4. My first gig as a professional musician was at age 16. At Konocti Harbor and Inn on Clearlake. Playing in a jazz group on a big two story stern-wheeled riverboat out on the lake. 4th of July 1973.

5. I was paid $8,000 for my first year of teaching. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. That year I went from working two jobs and going to school full time, making about $3,000 a year - to working only one job, not going to school (as a student) and making over twice that much.

6. Every Sunday when I was little I would do my best to get dressed properly for Church, then ask my Dad how I looked. He would always say: you're a good looking dog. And I thought he was giving me a compliment.

7. I would probably enjoy hiking, by myself, in a remote back-country area for two weeks, more than almost anything else in the world.