Things Were New in 2017

There are a few milestones or new experiences worth mentioning...

Melissa

•  Has to use reading glasses to read regular print.
•  Turned 50.
•  Learned my dad has early stage dementia and started visiting his home on a daily basis.
•  Entered the work force, like, for reals, as a substitute teacher.

Kelly

•  Was released from the bishopric and called to be the Stake Young Men's Secretary.
•  Started back to the beach on Saturdays and is dealing with an older body.

Heather 

•  Received an OWL and went to the ball (LDS formal) with a nice boy.
•  Lettered on Varsity track, passed her AP Art History test, and rocked graduation with honors.

•  Turned 18 and started college! Whoa!

Jenna

•  Visited a college campus to attend a volleyball camp and traveled to play in volleyball tournaments.
•  Earned a spot on her Varsity high school volleyball team as well as on a competitive club team.
•  Grew and is now 5'10"

Family

•  Lost a dog and gained a new one.
•  Traveled to San Elijo one last time for family vacation.
•  Visited Hogwarts and Hogsmead as many times as humanly possible.
•  Kelly and Melissa celebrated 30 years of marriage.
•  Became a family of 3 for a few months while missing our college student.

Halloween!

It was weird not to have any kids at home this year. Heather was at college and Jenna went to a party. No more trick-or-treating for these girls. I was feeling the end of a season for sure. To be honest, we got many more trick-or-treating years than I thought we would. It's awesome to have my girls love Halloween like I do. I made muffins for Jenna's seminary friends. The morning forecast on the television cracked me up. They posted temperatures from Halloweenishly named towns--Death Valley, CA; Ghoul Creek, WA; Mummy Pass, CO; Devil's Lake, MO; Skull Creek, NE; Boos, IL; and Sleepy Hollow, NY to name a few.  Jenna wanted to do mermaid makeup for school, and she did a fantastic job. She woke up about 4:00 a.m. to do it and was a little late to 5:45 a.m. seminary. This was costume number two. I had no idea she had a third costume in mind for the evening party. She was a deceased girl who had hung herself. Kind of creepy especially with Jenna's make up skills off the rails again. Her wounds looked so real. I whipped up a batch of cupcakes for Sarah's party. I had forgotten that I'd said I'd make them. They came out of the oven just in time, and I got to use a lot of my cupcake Halloween decor today which was a happy bonus. The last picture posted here are the Holbrook's daughter, Hannah, her husband and their baby.  They are the Matlands and Lydia from the movie, Beetlejuice. Too clever. Hannah made their masks herself. We were so impressed, and this is one of our favorite movies.

October at College

Clearly some of the most sensational college experience stories thus far have revolved around weather simply because we Californians don't have weather.  Well we do, but it's normally beautiful or at least mild.  Heather has Instagrammed a couple of morning pictures from her apartment which I have included here.  I can't believe it's snowing in October! She surprises me with a cute photo now and then like the one with her soda. And I send her photos of funny things like this sweatshirt. Allison Boyack had a Stranger Things Season 2 premiere party, and Heather was invited. What a fun thing to do for a ST fan! I decided to make Halloween cards to send to her and the HB church girls which was fun. I don't know if the girls liked them, but it was fun to send them. Heather put together a casual costume that she could wear to school during the day from a Marvel comic movie called Donnie Darko.  She was excited about it. Heather and her two friends have really been in to the show "Riverdale," and they decided to dress up as Josie and The Pussy Cats for Halloween night.  They didn't go to any parties, but they did go to Soda Vine and hang out for a bit in their costumes. Heather isn't much for the social gatherings because she doesn't know anyone, and many of the gatherings are very crowded. She's having some claustrophobic symptoms and is a little panicky. But she is still finding some fun here and there. She bought some decorations for Halloween to put with the ones we bought when we first got to Utah. I love that she loves to dress up and to decorate like her momma does.

Sunday Selfie

Jenna was looking so purty that I tried to snap a selfie on the way out of church. She did a better job in the car and did it with Snapchat.  That way I have a filter on me that makes me look younger.  Hahahahaha.

Trunk-or-Treat

At the LAST minute, Jenna wanted to dress up to help with Trunk-or-Treat at church. She did an amazing job of grouping her face up to be a ghostly woman for the night. Her make up skills continue to astound me. How did she know how to do this? She watched a Youtube video. We thought she had borrowed some of Heather's zombie make up, but nope. Jenna used cotton and glue to achieve the lovely gash on her face.  So talented this girl is! Sarah stopped by from the choir event she was at, and Sister Miller snapped a photo of Jenna and I before we left. I was a Hershey bar, as you can see.  Haha.

Dress Up Day at School

Edison Bell week this week. Jenna had some absences, but she made it for Edison Nerd Day. Cutest nerd ever. Abby was pretty cute too!

Weather Woes

While our daughter freezes in Idaho, we continue to have weather of our own going on in CA. It's normally not THIS hot in October, but boy are we getting it. The temperatures make for beautiful beach vistas like these I snapped from the top of Superior Ave in Newport Beach. I had two doctors appointments this month, and the view was magnificent both days.  Let's turn down the heat already! Someday we're really going to need to put in air conditioning.