Wow....I am way behind...

I knew I was behind on this blog but I didn't realize HOW far behind I have been.  Part was the fact that usually I only work on it on Sunday.  With Jena's mission call, we had two October Sundays busy with missionary stuff---Oct. 11 when she was set apart and Oct. 25 when she spoke in Church and we had an open house for her after our block of meetings (more details to follow).  Another Sunday (Nov. 1) I was just tired after the Hall Halloween Chili and Scones are our house, two more Sundays in November I was in AZ, and one Sunday I tried but I couldn't get the pictures to upload to my computer as I had recently updated to Windows 10---whew....and there you have my whole pile of excuses for not keeping up.  As you can see there has been a bit of stuff going on and although it won't be a rich (and probably long) and impactful for me to write about them a month or so later, it is better than nothing.  I need to keep up with this because I have a goal to start another blog page (it will be private--no worries you won't have to read it) that will update our family history from 1978 when we got married into blog format books as well.  I like the ability to upload pictures and write the posts and then turn it all into print format.  As you can imagine that this is a task for my next 20 years but I hope in the end that it leaves a history that my children, grandchildren, and etc. will love to share.  Pictures and words together are a great medium for sharing family life and stories.

Brief over view of the Hall Family at this time and place--

Although Gary has applied for a couple of jobs, he has been so busy doing other stuff that it is hard to imagine when he had time to work.  Part of that is running Jena to her mission locations on Tuesdays and Wednesday, doing things around the house, indexing batches for family search, going to the temple, working in his calling for Scouts, running two bowling leagues--one special needs on Monday and a league on Wednesday that our brother-in-law Allan bowls on, helping his mom, to name a few.


Jessica and Elessia are busy with their little son Liam who is now 6 months--Jessica continues to work at Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) and Elessia works on the weekends at Michaels.  Although Liam is a frequent and big "smiler", I like this serious picture from Thanksgiving.  His eyes are exactly the same as Jessica--blue with green around the middle.  They are great to make the extra effort to bring him up to us to play with him and often do errands etc. up here so that we can babysit

                                                         

                                                           

                                     

Scott and Chantel still live in Layton about 3 miles away. Chantel continues to work part-time as an exercise therapist at Ogden Regional and Scott is still trying to get some type of job within a hospital as he tries to start a career in hospital administration.  It seems to be one of those fields where you need to know someone to get a job.  He is either overqualified or without the required experience.  Not a fun time of life........With my busy life, I haven't been able to watch Scarlett as often as last year and I really miss that weekly time with her.  When we do have time, it is party time with a toddler.  My mom used to say her favorite age of child was toddlers.  I really settled on the ages 6-11 myself, but toddlers and babies are a lot of fun, too (of course the fact that they are my grandchildren could be a factor.)

Scarlett playing with me!

Ben has been dealing with increasing problems with his illness and side effects which has continued to affect his daily living.  He did manage to come with us to Mesa for Thanksgiving which was good.  However this past Tuesday he asked to be admitted to the hospital due to some concerns symptoms.  He is now in UNI in Salt Lake and has started a new medication which was approved this past summer but they have never used it yet.  At least some thing new has the potential of helping in a different way--perhaps we can hope for a little while at least.  Ben said the first day was okay.

Nikki enjoying a cupcake

Tosha and Austen are adjusting to life in Okinawa.  Like overseas posting in general it is wonderful and exciting and they are making some great friends with children, too, but there are also times when they miss family and friends back in the States.  Thank heavens for messenger and Facetime so that we can keep in touch. 

Jena is busy with life as a missionary plus!  She serves two days a week as a missionary and on Sundays.  She goes to school 3 days a week at a post-secondary school program.  Monday evening she volunteers at a local theatre, Tuesday nights is Institute, Wednesday night is Wonderwood-a reading and speech program for individuals with DS-Thursday evening she works at the bowling alley and every other Friday she goes to Friday Friends, a social activity for teens and adults with Down syndrome.

I try to keep up with all of these people.  I am finishing up my service as the president of UDSF although some things will carry over into the new year. This is my last week of my fourth of nine semesters in my graduate program.  One more major assignment to write and some odds and ends to finish up with to complete this week. 

That wraps up the overview.  Now to try to catch up on the details of the past 6 weeks....