October Fall in Syracuse

Happy Halloween

It is October so I managed to pull out the Halloween decorations before we left for San Fransisco. 

This hangs on our front door.

I already blogged about our short trip to San Fransisco.  It was beautiful weather there and also here.  Our weather did one of those unseasonable warm to winter weather in just a few days.  We actually have had snow flurries this week in our town with lots of snow in the mountains.  We have enjoyed the wonderful colors of the fall from our maple trees in front. 

They are very slow growing, but the colors of their leaves are amazing. 

(I had a great picture when they were full of red and brown leaves but I can't find it anywhere.)

On Oct. 10th, Tosha ran a half Marathon around Layton and Syracuse.  She was pleased with her time since this was her first time.  She is hoping to be ready to do a full Marathon in the spring.

I had  headed home a day early from San Fran to coach Jean's Special Olympic basketball team.  They were preparing for the Fall Games which are held at the University of Utah each October.  Jena was involved in swimming and basketball.  As mentioned before this was her first year to compete in the regular swim meet at the 25 meter distances.  She did back stroke and free style.  In basketball she did developmental skills.

She had a fun couple of days.  I think that she enjoys her friends almost as much if not more than the actual competition.  Fun and fitness are two major goals of Special Olympics.  Here is some looks at the competition.

That was a fun weekend.  I think that Jena got a silver and gold in swimming and then a silver in basketball.

We spent a couple of days trying to catch up from the 2 days down at the Fall Games and to prepare for the next adventures.  I flew out to St. Louis on Wednesday the 20th with five other people from Davis Behavioral Health.  We attended a training for Starting up at new Clubhouse.  Club House is a rehabitiation model to help people suffering from serious mental illnesses.  It is an international program that is very successful in helping those people find more life fulfillment and also find jobs where they can be successful in working.  I am part of a working committee to organize and support our brand new clubhouse which opened it's doors about 2 weeks ago.  It is called Journey House.  It was very intense training "from dawn to dusk" with homework.  On top of that I had a client give birth before I left so I would spend each night form 9 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. working on things to prepare for that plus talking to her.  She was three weeks early so there was things still to be done to get ready.  We were so busy while in St. Louis that we only saw the arch from our hotel and didn't get a chance to get close.

We enjoyed our time however.  Our driver who pick us up from the airport commented that we didn't look Amish......which started a fun relationship with him throughout our stay.  He told us that we weren't like most people who came for training...we started out funny and talkative rather than taking time to warm up.  That made us laugh and try harder to live up to that standard.  Four of the people work together at Davis Behavioral Health and another was a member of the Clubhouse and then I was the community member.  I didn't know the others much but they were great and I had a great time with them.  We laughed so hard when we were together.  I discovered that one of them went to school with Gary although she didn't think he would remember her (he did actually).  Hard work and fun times and not much sleep...I am getting old for that.  Even now I am still tired and not quite caught up with things.....of course I have a sore throat and moving to a cold I think so that adds to it.......

Of course, life didn't end when I got home.  We were delayed in our flights home so I didn't actually get home until 1:00 a.m.  Utah time on Saturday.  Jena and Gary had to get up at 6:30 a.m. for an early morning dress rehearsal for the Roadshow that night.  Jena was a dancer and Gary did the sound.  That meant I had to get up to get her dressed and ready to go.  Gary doesn't do ponytails.  As they spent time at their practice, I went to work to prepare for an adoption relinquishment and placement.  That was how I spent my day. 

Ben also had a big Saturday.  He spent the day in Salt Lake at a Young Adult Conference for those with mental illnesses.  He actually did two presentations on soap making as an example of leisure time activities.  It went fine and he was pleased with it.

After picking Ben up in Salt Lake, I joined Jena and Gary at the Roadshow Evening at the Stake Center.  I forgot the camera so only have one picture of Jena in her costume as a "Lollipop dancer".  She was darling and had a fun time being part of the play.  No awards were given but we had a great roadshow that was centered on "Once upon a time....when you could watch TV".  One character was "Laura Ingalls" and she was often adding little comments about "This is Walnut Grove and I belong here".  Since our ward is the Walnut Grove Ward....it added a funny twist to an already funny productions.  We all loved it.

Sunday was the Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting.  We have 155 children and in the past we have tried to write a program where most kids had a speaking or special group singing part.  This time we decided to focus on the music instead and sang a larger number of songs. The main song "I know the Savior lives" was beautiful.  The writer of the song happens to live in Syracuse and came the week before and talked about writing the song.  Then she lead the kids singing it.  It was sweet although I think the teachers were more touched that the kids themselves. 

Each class had a part they did together and then we had three children give talks about our Primary activities and two kids play a piano number.  It was awesome.  The kids sang great.  Of course, the Sunbeams were crazy and enjoyed grabbing the mic during the songs.  Oh, well...memories.

Then to manage those crazy (yet cute) kids during Sharing time we decided to do something completely different.  Gary and I put together "Walnut Grover Eyeball Benders".  We took 53 pictures around our Church building, adjusted the pictures to be close up.  Then the kids got to guess what it was in the picture.

Here is a couple of examples:

Any of you who have been in an LDS Church probably can identify all of these pictures.  Have fun!

And this week we have just been trying to recovering in the middle of all the things that we have planned.  Jena has been sick with a cold for over a week and now has bronchitis so she has been home from school all week.....so Tosha and I who are getting colds feel like the germs came from her and the junior high :)

We are hoping for a quiet weekend.............chili and scones with Gary's family and passing out candy to the neighborhood kids on Saturday and Sunday.