Happy Halloween

Hey, family.  How is everyone? What fun things are you all doing for Halloween?  Will we get to see any pictures of your celebrations?  We sure hope so!  It has always been one of my favorite holidays to celebrate with grandkids.  We are staying in our apartment Halloween night, to avoid any scariness (hehe), but did go to the Ward's Trunk-or-treat.  Here are some of the goblins that showed up for that:

I took pictures of adults because none of the kids knew me and wouldn't hold still long enough!  But they were all excited and had a good time.  The YSA ward provided games for them, and we had a chili supper.  But I'll still be thinking of you all Friday night. 

We have been keeping busy.  We've met some great people the last few weeks.  One fellow, Paul, is a 30 something dad who lost his wife to cancer a few months ago.  He has a very positive outlook on life, and is very grateful for his 2 kids.  We met the little girl, and she is so sweet.  She's 4, and has a 6 year old brother.  They live up the canyon on the way to Santa Cruz, in a little fixer-upper.  It's like living full time in a cabin.  I would love it!  And its only 15 minutes from the ocean.  He is able to stay strong for his kids, and talked a lot about his wife.  He is a great guy.

Then we met Sara, who just moved here from New Mexico.  She works for Google, in a very high stress job, and is homesick.  She said she loves to bake, and sugar cookies are her specialty.  I challenged her to a sugar cookie bake-off!  She can't bake in her little apartment, because the oven doesn't maintain a consistent temperature, so she is going to come over here and use our oven sometime.  She said I could borrow some of her cookie cutters to make Christmas cookies.  She's very homesick, and we feel like we can be her Mom and Dad for a while.  Which works for us 'cause we miss our daughters!

We met another lady, Tovi, who is a single mom of a 13 year old boy.  She has been trying to get back to church for a while, but it's hard.  She has had lots of challenges, and her son told her if they would just go to church and pray, everything would be okay.  Amazing, huh?  So we encouraged her and assured her that he's right, and Heavenly Father knows her and will help her, and she made it!  They were at church Sunday.  It's a start.

We had an MSA Fireside on Sunday, where a family relationship counselor came and talked to the singles about how to be a "Marital Magnet".  He told some very funny stories and had some good advice, but when he opened it up to questions it got a little weird.  We ended up leaving early (it was 9:00, our bedtime!) and didn't get to stay for the TONS of goodies they had ready for everyone.  I baked some lemon bars to take to it, and they turned out pretty bad.  They got over-cooked, and the crust was too thick and hard.  If anyone has a good lemon bar recipe, I'd love a copy.  People are always giving us fresh lemons from their trees, and I'd like to be able to use them up before they go bad. 

We went to Santa Cruz to Sunset Beach Monday, and it was nice.  We didn't see any whales this time, but the seagulls were entertaining.  Dad threw one his apple core, and they had quiet a tussle over it.  It doesn't take much to entertain us!

Well, that's about it for us.  Time is flying, and the holidays will be here before we know it.  The Staley's are coming for Thanksgiving, which is very exciting.  If anyone else is planning on coming out in the next few months, please let us know.  We welcome you, and know it will help us not be too homesick.  It's a great way for you to get out of the cold! 

Hope to hear from you all (hint, hint).  We love you lots!