November '23 is here!

A Child's Hope Foundation hosts a big "Thank you" dinner each year for all of the Aunts & Uncles. If you become a monthly donor, any amount really ~ you are a part of this program. We put on a dinner November 1st to thank everyone for their generosity and show all the good their money has done throughout the year.

While I am not a part of the external events team, I do sit in on the meetings and help. Caitlin is a volunteer who took on this event. Bless her! She found a room to rent at the Provo Library within our budget and started planning. She did fantastic! She is currently the YW President in her ward and had just done this photo backdrop and we were so glad to reuse it.  It turned out so cute!

It was just she and I for set up. We met up at 9am and got to work. Once we were done we ran over to Kent's to chop pineapple and carne asada. I ran home to freshen up, since I was the door greeter checking everyone in. It was a great turnout and a fantastic presentation done by Madelyn. It was fun for me to meet so many in person that I have communicated with over the past year. 

We are growing ~ just in the past year we have increased our donors significantly and it was fun to compare the bigger crowd. I marvel at so many people willing to donate personal funds and time to propel this important cause forward.

 I love this great group!

It is time to redo our shower. It is hard to believe it is 23 years old! Wow, time flies by! Showers don't last forever, and we are at the point that I am getting worried about water damage inside the floors. I started getting bids. The first guy that came over talked and talked and talked. All nonsense I don't care about. Good grief. Then he gave us a quote much higher than it was to get all new custom kitchen cabinetry. Buh-bye. 

The next guy was very strange and also wanted to talk some nonsense I don't care about. I guided him upstairs so he could get down to business and stop talking. One look at our shower and he said he couldn't do it. Too big, too custom. Then he wanted to tell me a bunch of stories and more nonsense. I guided him out the door because good grief. 

Jon has a pal in our stake that does construction. He came over and is super great, but had real big ideas about removing walls and going bonkers. I just want our little shower space redone. I really don't care about making it fancy or grand. I just want a fresh, clean shower that will get us through the next 20 years.

Fourth times a charm. Jon had another construction friend come over to bid. He gave us options to save the most money. He didn't have a lot of samples to choose from and seemed to want to be very conservative in destruction and materials. Now he spoke my language.

He is an older guy. I sat at the kitchen table and worked while I heard him pounding away upstairs. He was so tidy- he kept bringing down 5 gallon buckets of debris while he worked. I realized how odd it is for me to just sit there while someone else is doing the work! Other than our cabinet guys, we have always done all of the work ourselves! I love it!

I knew that knocking out the shower ourselves and trying to figure out water-tight pans and a drain and sealing everything good was waaaaaaay out of my comfort zone. I also have considered tiling the area myself, but I really don't want to add grout and excess caulk to my cleaning. It ain't as pretty, but I really love the solid slick panels for maintenance. And really, no one see's our shower but us. I was so grateful we found someone to do the job!
 

It took him about 4 days to demolish everything. At this point I was using the kids bathroom to shower. We had told them they better get it shiny clean and ready for us all to share for a little while!

Then we had plumbers showing up and the panel guy- they all worked loud, quick and tidy. I tell you what- sitting at the table working and watching the guy maneuver the enormous heavy panels around the base of the stairs and hearing him panting made me so glad I was not doing that. 
While we were chatting, he noticed the crack in the countertop in our island. I hate it. he referred a guy he knows to come fix it. I guess there is no way to make it totally disappear without getting an entirely new island, but he was able to jack it back up and put in wedges and seal the crack so at least you can't feel the ridge anymore. Just a bummer all around. Oh well, at least it's at this point.

Now that it is done it feels so nice. I have motivation to do some sprucing in there. 

The day of our Orem Temple Tour popped up on me so fast! I was sad that Eli had to work and missed it, but the three of us rode the shuttle on over and did the quick tour. It was quick! I appreciate how efficient the church conducts such thing. It is a beautiful temple. So colorful! We were there at sunset and the light shining in through the stained glass windows in the sealing rooms was so gorgeous! That is the time to get married, folks!

What a great group, right here!

 

As fall still lingers in the air and the dust is settling from the construction, I am loving some sprucing. Inside and out!

Paisley finished her job at the pumpkin patch on Halloween night. They told her she could take all the pumpkins she wanted. She filled the trunk and backseat of her car! Soooo many pumpkins. We piled them on the porch and around the new little trees in the front yard and it looked so cute!

A guy in our ward noticed and said when we are ready, he'd love to come pick them up in his truck and feed them to his pigs. Hooray!

More photos of Adren in the field! 

You see, if you zoom in enough and study every single face- you will often spot Elder Geertsen :)

We love and miss you so, Adren :)

Adren has gotten into yo-yo's and shows us his new tricks on our calls. He's so cute- and happy!

 

While I was out on errands I marveled at the gorgeous mountains in front of me. Wow! I pulled over to get some pics to send to Adren. He tells us he wishes he had more pics of our mountains, as most people in NY have never seen the great Rocky Mountains.

My dear friend Kelly is mourning the loss of their grand Cottonwood tree in their front yard. It is massive and the landmark to the street! I always look for it to know it is her house. It sheds so much cotton all over the street in the spring, and they always have a hammock tied in it. She hosts grand 4th of July parties in it's shade each year and my own kids know it well for it's great climbing. It is old and starting to cause some structure issues around the house so they had to get it cut down. She is surprised at how sad it has made her to see it go- it makes us all sad!

Jon and I attended a Murder-Mystery dinner a friend at work hosted. It was all 80's famous people themed. Can you tell who we are? Ha!

Madonna and Mork (from Mork and Mindy)

I was very glad we attended, it is good to get know people on a different level other than work. It was a really fun night with really fun people.

 

 

And finally, we replaced our old oven. I dropped my heavy dutch oven on the glass top and cringed when I saw I cracked the edge. Then a slow crack inched across the main burner, which stopped working. And finally, the oven temps are off. I'll bake something only to find it halfway cooked and the temperature not up to where I set it. Between the oven, countertop and shower, it feels like I have a new life! It is pretty great and I am so grateful! I don't think I realized all of these little (big!) things really matter how I feel about our home. It feels so good to check off these much needed updates .