First Snow!

Can you believe that it is only the beginning of October and it is already snowing? It was over 70 degrees last week, and today we get this! I do love how beautiful and quiet it is when it snows like this, but I am just not ready for winter yet.... we just started fall.... :(

Homecoming Duchess

Our Haley was voted Homecoming Duchess this year! The kids in each grade nominate 5 or 6 kids and then they vote on the nominees. The Seniors with the most votes are named King and Queen, the Juniors are Prince and Princess, Sophomores are Duke and Duchess and the Freshmen are Lord and Lady. Haley received the most votes for the Sophomores and was crowned Duchess. Her very best friend (also known as a boyfriend) Chris, was the Duke.

Her "Duchess" duties made for a long day today. The pep assembly was at 11:00 this morning at the school where the winners were announced (we were notified on Monday that she was the winner - but it was to be kept a secret until they announced the winners today). Each winner had someone escort them through the sword line. Haley had her cousin Seth escort her. Chris had his second cousin as his escort - who was completely adorable by the way!



After the assembly, we had to get her into her dress and head over to a church parking lot a few miles away where the parade would start. Each couple rode on a convertible and threw candy to all of the elementary school kids who line the streets to watch the parade. It was FREEZING today of course - its been in the 70's until this week - we are even supposed to get snow this weekend!



Once the parade was over we headed home to start doing her hair for the football game this evening. It took about 2 hours to get it all curled and now I am not sure why we bothered - by the time we got home it was almost completely straight again - good old Brackett curl.



At the football game, they again rode on the back of the convertibles onto the field at half time. Dave and I got to escort her through the swords as they read a brief paragraph she had written about herself. It was even more freezing than it was today and she was a trooper and made it through the half time show with no coat. We stayed and watched the rest of the game (we won - yeah!) and then got MOSTLY defrosted on the way home in the car. Next time we will definitely remember to bring blankets and wear more clothes!



The Homecoming Dance is tomorrow night. She is NOT going - for 2 reasons. The first is that she says "I don't dance - so I don't go to dances", and the second is that she is not 16, and therefore can not date yet. It seems kind of a waste to spend so much money on a dress for her to wear for a total of about an hour - but she looked beautiful. Hopefully this will be one of her very happy High School memories!

Canada is Gorgeous in the Fall!

We just got back from a wonderful 4-day weekend in Edmonton. We have been there several times before, but our trip has always been during the summer months. With Dave's crazy work schedule, this year a summer vacation was just not possible. The kids were out of school on Thursday & Friday, so we left right as school got out on Wednesday and headed up for the long weekend.

Boy did I need the vacation. It was very nice just to spend some alone time with the family. No instant messaging, limited texting (no service in many of the areas), no emails (I did not check them the whole time we were gone!) and on top of that, I turned off my cell phone.

We spent the majority of our time at the West Edmonton Mall. For those of you who have never been there, I would HIGHLY recommend it! It is huge, and has an indoor amusement park, indoor water park, mini golf course, 2 theaters including 1 IMAX, and countless stores and restaraunts.

On the way home we drove through Cardston, Alberta - which is a very small town just on the Canadian side of the border. It was settled by early Mormon pioneers who migrated up there and built the first Canadian Temple. We met a friend there for lunch (a guy that Dave works with is actually from there and was there on vacation also), and then headed to Waterton Lakes National Park. It was beautiful! The leaves were all changing and it looked so gorgeous.


In the park there is a cute little tourist town. We stopped just for a minute and noticed that there were deer wandering around town. It was really weird - they must have been almost tame. They let you get really close to them before scurring away. Reagan, of course, thought that she would be able to get them eat right out of her hands, but that was not happening!



It was so wonderful to be able to spend time as a family and I am grateful for the chance to get away (the shopping wasn't bad either!)

It's Potato Time!

Yeah - the trucks are rolling, the equipment out, the dirt turned, and potatoes are being harvested! I was visiting teaching night before last and the lady whom we were teaching asked if we had gleaned any potatoes yet (for those of you who are not familiar with the term - it means take what you can use, and applies to not just potato harvesting). Yikes! I hurried and gave the lesson and was out the door so I could get some good harvesting in before sundown. I called my sister Julie and told her to hurry and bring a bucket or box for us to use.

For those of you who do not live in Idaho, the harvesting of potatoes is all done by machinery. About 3 weeks before harvest, they kill the plants (some farmers just roll over them with heavy equipment - others spray them with a chemical that kills the above ground part of the plant, others wait for the first freeze). This process actually sets the skins on the potatoes. If they skipped this step, the skins would come right off. Once the skins are set, large machinery comes through and "digs" the rows of potatoes up. This same piece of equipment has a conveyor belt. As the potatoes move up the belt, the dirt and vines are shaken off and then the potatoes are dropped into a huge truck that rolls along side the harvester. Click here to watch a short video of an actual Idaho potato harvest.

I explain all of this for a reason. The trucks only make one pass over each row, and they have to turn corners with a machine that has zero turning radius. Tons of potatoes are left on the ground - especially at the corners. The farmers are more than willing to let the average Joe go in after the machinery is done and get as many potatoes as you can find. Otherwise, they rot in the ground. So needless to say in just under 30 minutes, Julie and I were able to get a good size tote full of potatoes.

Potatoes on the ground after the truck has run through the field

We decided it would be great fun to take her 3 little boys out yesterday after school for their first potato harvest. At first we were met with quite a bit of opposition to the idea - they were just too busy playing with friends. But after my assurance that it would be fun, they reluctantly got in the car. Once we hit the fields, they were off having the time of their lives. They compared it to an Easter egg hunt - with the coveted prize not being the most brightly colored egg - but the biggest potato. Let me tell you we found some WHOPPERS. Nothing like these ever make it to the stores. You could feed an entire family on 1 potato!

Bryan, my nephew & his HUGE potato

The potatoes are "California Whites", which the farmer explained to us are strictly a "processing" potato. They do not kill the plant to set the skins on these ones. They are meant for the processors who make them into french fries, dried potato flakes, frozen hash browns, etc. They are not good for baked potatoes, but they make excellent mashed or au gratin potatoes. The russets are being harvested later this week so we will head out and get some of those also. Believe me when I tell you there is NOTHING like fresh potatoes.

Fall is, by far, my favorite season..

Fall is by far my favorite time of year. The smell when I step outside, the coolness of the air, the changing leaves - I just can't put my finger on what exactly makes me love it so much, but I do. Each year, there seems to be 1 particular day for me that signals the onset of fall, and today is that day. I can't tell you exactly what brought about the change today, but to me, today is fall.

Fall not only brings changes in my surroundings, but I change too. The meals I cook change, the things I do around the house change, the way I feel changes. Funny how such a small change in your surroundings can change the way you feel about so many things.

So here are a few things that I absolutely LOVE about fall:

• Burning my Pumpkin Pie Gold Canyon Candle
  
• red, gold, and brown leaves
• cool morning and evening air so I can open windows and air out the house
• making "harvest type" deserts (pumpkin, apples)
• digging up fresh Idaho potatoes
  
• Halloween (and the Decor that goes with it)
• driving in the country with the windows down
• Wearing cute sweaters
• Having my husband home for dinner
• Making casseroles
• Breaking out my extensive boot collection
• All my network shows are back on TV
• Cream Soups and Chili
• fresh Utah peaches
  

So now that fall "has arrived" for me, I will have to be careful and not put on 10 pounds with all of the deserts, casseroles, and cream soups!

Dyson's Are NOT GOOD VACUUMS!

So the place we currently live has the "Idaho standard" carpet - that is what I call it since I had never seen it til I moved here. It is just a speckled shag carpet. I thought it was crap carpet. I vacuum 3 to 4 times a week and it still always looked like crap. It got all matted down in the high traffic areas and basically just looked like poo.

So I have a $450 Dyson vacuum that is supposed to be the best vacuum out there. It seems to pick up dirt cause every time I vacuum I have to empty the canister - mostly just fuzz and stuff, but there is some dirt. Dave kept saying it was a crappy vacuum and totally not living up to its name.

So Last night I went to Walmart and bought myself a $139 Eureka vacuum. Right on the front of the box it said "Cleans 60% Better Than Dyson". So I grabbed it and went home. Dave put it together for me and I started vacuuming.

Let me tell you - my carpet is not crappy! It was the vacuum! Just the upstairs yielded an entire bag full of dirt. And it was like the really fine sand type - you could hear it as I was vacuuming. I could not believe how GROSS that was. Me being somewhat of a neat freak - ugh, I thought I would die knowing that all that dirt was in my carpet! And I just had them shampooed 2 months ago, so that is only 2 months worth of dirt!

Now my carpet actually shows footprints after you vacuum and then walk on it. My Dyson is going in the TRASH! Even if this new vacuum only lasts 3 or 4 years, then for the same price as my Dyson, I can by a new vacuum every 4 years and it will be 16 years before I spend the same money!

Labor Day as a Family

It was so nice to sleep in this morning! I think we all rolled out of bed long about 10:30 - which must be some sort of record. The weather turned a bit cold today with a fall storm moving through the area so normal Labor Day activities like going to the river or having a BBQ were out.

We decided have the girls do an outdoor photo shoot in one of the more beautiful areas around. We found some great locations and were able to get some pretty cute pictures of them.

I guess today was the first time I really realized that Haley is no longer a little girl, but has grown into a beautiful young lady. She is quite photogenic and loves to pose for the camera.

Reagan is still my baby and still looks like a little girl, which I hope to keep that way for awhile longer. I am not ready quite yet to have 2 young women.

It was so nice to spend some family time together with Dave around. Tomorrow will be back to work as usual though. The weather is supposed to warm up a bit so we have not officially entered fall... although I can't wait! Fall is by far my most favorite season and there is a distinct feeling and smell in the air when it arrives. I will most certainly post a blog when I feel like it has officially arrived, and will list all of the reasons why I love it!